The Amazing Rapunzel
by n00dles
Summary: Rapunzel is abducted by the Ravagers and gains new superpowers! She's about to go on a ride fighting old and new foes. Mysteriously, someone else was released by the same group after being held in suspended animation: Merida. My 2nd story in a hypothetical Disney mega-verse. (Tangled, Brave, Marvel Cinematic Universe)
1. Abducted

**A/N: I'm continuing the whole idea of writing crossovers in a "unified Disney mega-verse" that contains basically everything it owns.**

**For my second story, I'm gonna try my hand at fitting Rapunzel and Merida into the grand scheme of things, super-powering Rapunzel (her powers were mostly inspired by the Spiderman and Rapunzel fanart, hence the title) and buffing Merida to a comic peak human. It starts post-Frozen (Rapunzel is assumed to be 21 years old). Normally, any crossover between Brave and Tangled would involve ignoring the time period difference, but since anything Disney owns is fair game for me, I've found a way to stay true to that using a little bit of Guardians of the Galaxy. Here goes…**

* * *

Rapunzel and Eugene were relieved to see the freak winter storm end in Arendelle. Just when Eugene thought there couldn't be anything more magical than Rapunzel's hair, he witnessed a grand display of power by Rapunzel's oldest cousin.

Rapunzel never got why Anna and Elsa's parents would want to separate them after their childhood accident. The fact that their isolation perpetuated the very kind of fear they were trying to prevent bothered her, and the events that took place were frighteningly astonishing. Yet, she admired the good side of Elsa's ice powers once she learned to control them.

"Ya know, I'm starting to wonder if the Queen isn't the only cousin of yours that has special powers," Eugene remarked as they walked towards the docks.

"Anna, you mean?" Rapunzel answered, "Well we'll see about that, but man can she do some suspect things. One moment she's tripping over herself, the next she's jumping around like a super ninja and punching people off ships."

"Your family gets more magical the more I get to know 'em."

"Eugene…"

Eugene made his way back to their ship while Rapunzel ventured towards the main square to have a final chat with Anna. Despite all of the events on Elsa's coronation day, they were glad they could return the favor after Anna and Elsa's parents died trying to attend Rapunzel's wedding.

"The Queen would like to thank you for your visit. She apologizes for all of the hardships she caused," Kai greeted them as Rapunzel came back.

"Well I know the feeling," Rapunzel sighed.

"I've checked the ship," their captain told them, "Luckily it didn't sustain any damage from the ice."

"So we're good to go?" Eugene asked.

"Perfectly."

"I'm…that's amazing."

* * *

They would spend several days out on the water before reaching Corona. The trip was long enough to require a stop halfway through along the southern coastline to allow the captain to rest.

"Looks like we got the flames," Eugene congratulated himself that night.

With a fire started, they tore through their saved meal on that beach, exhausted from all the traveling.

"I still can't believe what we all went through. It just reminded me more and more of being in that tower," Rapunzel contemplated.

"You've got me now. I will always be there when you need me," Eugene said.

"I know, it's just…that's the darkest I've ever felt in my life. I never thought years of isolation could lead to causing a freak blizzard. I can't imagine having Elsa's powers."

"Just be glad you don't have them."

Rapunzel sighed. "I know, but still I-"

"You get the feels."

Maximus neighed in concern.

"Oh don't worry Max. She has control of the powers now at least."

They sat silent next to the campfire and continued to toss more wood in.

"What was going on with Hans?" Eugene asked after a few minutes.

"Prince Hans of the Southern Isles? I heard he was plotting to kill Elsa and take the throne."

"Excuse me? He wanted to do _that_? I thought Anna decked him cause he turned out to be a jerk."

"Well he is. He's also a power hungry manipulation master who tricked all of us. I know my 'mother' brainwashed me for eighteen years but that puts him on the next level."

"Sure does."

They chatted and chilled a bit longer before they noticed a bright light peering through the forest trees behind the beach and began to hear a distant whirring noise.

"What's going on?" Rapunzel gasped as she approached it.

"I wouldn't go there I were you," Eugene warned her.

"Eugene! How bad could it be? After everything we've been through?"

Rapunzel cautiously made her way towards the light, following the sound. Eugene chased after her.

"Whoa, what the-"

She entered a clearing and came across a large, levitating vessel illuminated with numerous lights. It had to be floating at least two stories off the ground and seemed to cover nearly half an acre. Rapunzel moved closer as the unknown flying object approached her.

"Rapunzel!" Eugene shouted at her.

The UFO centered itself right over her and activated something that forced her into it. To Eugene, it appeared as if a stream of light activated from its belly for a few seconds and made her disappear.

"Oh no! Nooooo!"

* * *

Rapunzel wasn't sure how long she was unconscious by the time she woke up, but it was clear to her she was onboard the UFO that captured her. She was glad to see Pascal with her unharmed, but she felt something different inside herself and couldn't quite put a finger on it. It was as if she could see, feel, and hear everything at an elevated level.

"What's happening to me?" Rapunzel muttered to Pascal.

She examined the extraterrestrial surroundings. The room was well lit and contained comfortable beds including the one she woke up on. The walls were plain metal, and it was filled with strange and complex devices. She could only assume it was some kind of lab or medical room.

"Just when I thought things wouldn't get any more interesting."

The place smelled horribly, and her newfound senses made it worse for her. Whoever the aliens were, they were definitely a bit crude. She detected their voices near the front of the ship.

"I hope the experiments will turn out successful, Yondu. There's a reason why we were chosen to help him carry them out," one of them said.

"Well when you got an Infinity Stone there's nothin' better I'd like to do then gain somethin' outta it," Yondu assured him.

"I still don't get it," a third voice inquired.

"Have you forgotten what we do? We're letting him doing this under Xandar's noses. They ain't never gonna allow anything like this. Ya, see, I realized some time ago that doing these kinds of things gets us more than the usual, and I know y'all looove more."

"I guess using Terran-like people from an isolated Terra-like planet as lab rats help too," the first one remarked.

"It sure does. When we send 'em back home, they can't snitch on us. If our lovely scientist gets living proof he's successful we'll get quite a hefty sum. He's been tellin' me this one's unprecedented."

"Any reason why he wanted her in particular?" the first one asked.

"He ain't tellin' me."

"I'll take it anyways," the third one replied, "Infinity Stone? Man this is looking up! I just hope he knows what he's doing."

"Well see that's kind of the thing about this," the first one said, "From what we know about him he can manipulate the stone but hasn't ever done anything like this with it. He managed to develop his own version of that Super-Soldier Serum but this is completely different. Keep your fingers crossed."

Rapunzel backed away from the voices. Why were her alien abductors speaking her language? Who were they and what did they want with her? What was an Infinity Stone? What was that serum they were talking about? Who or what is Xandar?

She explored the rest of the room. It appeared that it was the place where those "experiments" were carried out. She was amazed at how her abductors harnessed electricity. What was only a theory to her people was a fact of life in the ship's environment. Knowing this, she was careful not to accidentally hit a wrong switch.

She believed no one else was present there with her until she came across a pod containing a petite human female with shoulder length curly red hair. The mystery girl had to be close to Rapunzel's age, and seemed to be in good physical shape. She was dressed in a mostly green outfit, one that was very dated compared to what Rapunzel was used to. The advanced, alien setting certainly was the last place she expected to find someone or something _behind_ her times.

"Hey?" Rapunzel waved her hand. She didn't even flinch.

Rapunzel curiously pushed random surrounding buttons and strangely broke them, causing the pod to short out and open.

"Whoa."

Perhaps she wasn't supposed to push them, but at least she got it open. She tapped the mystery girl on the cheek, attempting again to see if she would wake up. Nothing happened.

"Hmmm…"

Rapunzel looked around the pod to see if there were any clues as to who she was. The labels on the pod were as surprisingly readable to her as the aliens' dialogue, but didn't get a name until she turned her eyes towards a nearby wall, which contained a glowing picture of the young woman and her name: _"Merida"_.

"What the-"

Before Rapunzel had any time to react to what she just saw, she felt a needle being plunged to the right side of her neck, causing her to fall unconscious again.


	2. Trying to figure it out

**A/N: I'm assuming the Little Mermaid theory is used here and Anna and Elsa's parents were going to Rapunzel's wedding. The Tarzan theory contradicts this.**

* * *

Rapunzel regained consciousness and found herself alone in what appeared to be the middle of the same forest she was abducted. The sun was out. Was it all a dream?

The enhanced senses were still there. She could see everything crystal clear, and could feel every detail of the grass below her. The noises of every bird and insect close and far from her, practically everything coming out of Pascal, and even distant human voices could be heard. It wasn't a dream. Whoever abducted her somehow changed her.

The other one onboard the UFO continued to intrigue her. She could only assume Merida was from her planet and was experimented on as she was. Their motives for abducting and experimenting on them were evidently pretty deep.

She followed the voices, hoping to reorient herself. Eventually, she came across a familiar establishment: The Snuggly Duckling.

"Thank god, I'm actually-aarrggh!"

Suddenly, she was grabbed and apprehended by the Stabbington brothers.

"You, princess! You and Flynn are gonna pay!" one of them yelled in her ear, "We had a deal with your mother!"

"She's not my mother! And it's not my problem!"

Expecting to struggle, Rapunzel instead broke free of their hold quite easily, causing all three of them to pause. As the brothers went after her again, her reflexes became elevated to the same level her senses were, allowing her to momentarily perceive the world in slow motion. She got inside the reach of one of them and elbowed him very quickly. The second tried to grab her immediately afterwards, only to be thrown himself. Both were sent flying a phenomenal distance. The first had to have been nearly forty feet away from her, and the second nearly fifty.

"Oh my god! I am sooo, so sorry!" she apologized, "Are you two alright?"

"Get away from us!"

The Stabbingtons pulled themselves up and got away. Rapunzel ran behind the pub and sat down in the dirt. It was clear that her abductors did more than just elevate her senses. She shouldn't have been able to beat up the Stabbingtons that easily. Indeed, she always knew she was strong most of her life as she had to live with her supernaturally long hair, but not _that _strong.

Rapunzel dropped her head between her knees as tears began coming out of her eyes, worrying she would hurt others unintentionally. She began to think her new powers would put her in the same place Elsa was. The Queen of Arendelle lost control and wreaked havoc. She didn't want to cause the same to happen. When she lifted her head back up, she was relieved to see her surroundings remained unchanged, except for one thing.

"My hair!"

Her original long blonde hair suddenly came back, prompting her to dart away from the wall.

"How?"

It then disintegrated quickly in a series of yellow sparkles, causing her to revert back to her short brunette hair.

"That's weird. Could I get it back again?"

Concentrating only on the thought of getting the long hair back, she got it once more. Her hair glowed as it grew to seventy feet in a split second and turned blonde. She then made it disappear just as quickly.

"Wait a minute…"

It seemed she could have her long hair whenever she wanted, as long as she stayed in reasonable emotional control. Gladly knowing this, she ventured back into the forest.

"You might wanna hang on tight, Pascal."

She wanted to get a good idea of what changed in her, so there would likely be a few accidents. First up was strength. She wanted to see how much she could lift. Spotting a twenty-foot tall deciduous tree, she attempted to pull it straight from the ground, and did it with low effort. After going motionless in awe, she wanted to test how far she could throw it. She noticed she would do fine with just one arm rather than both, albeit a bit clumsily. With all of her might, she tossed it. The tree soared through the air and landed a great distance away, so far that it was almost out of sight. She was much, much stronger than she looked.

Theoretically, if she had super strength, she would be able to run at high speeds and jump higher as well. She attempted a super jump, shooting up high enough to get look over the trees.

"Whoaaa!"

She thought she was going to break something on her landing, but was reassured when she landed back on two feet without much pain.

"I guess I'm also unbreakable, I hope."

She checked for bleeding and broken bones, but she was fine.

Next up was the hair, as it would be a different experience using it than before. To see if she could use her long hair without being burdened by it, she wanted to know how quickly she could get it out, grab something, get rid of it, and over again. The tree branches in the forest were to be used as test beds. Amazingly, she found she had total control just reaching out with her thoughts. She could go from short brunette to long blonde at any length she desired, wherever she desired, whenever she wanted. The first few times bringing it out she was moving it with incredible speed. It was one grab on a different branch immediately after another, and the in the appropriate lengths every time.

Feeling confident, she decided to approach the uprooted tree and grabbed it with her hair. She rapidly decreased her hair's length and physically pulled it at the same time. As the tree neared her she dodged and made her hair vanish, reverting it back to its short brunette state.

"Whoa!"

It was coming at her too fast.

Perhaps the most curious thing she tried, however, was an attempt to see how well she could swing with her hair, given everything else she learned about her new self. She climbed up onto the highest branch she could, summoned her hair, and grabbed the farthest branch away from her that was possible.

"Here it comes…"

Holding on with both hands she jumped off and swung through the air. When she reached other end she discarded the long hair and initiated a series of somersaults.

"Wahhhh!"

Back with her brunette hair, she accidentally slammed face first into the next tree and fell to the ground onto her back. It still wasn't enough to scathe her.

Rapunzel felt she gained a decent understanding of her powers and raced back to her kingdom. She got there faster than she ever thought she could without even breaking a sweat, and reckoned she was moving at several times the rate a horse could. Pascal managed to hang on during the duration of it despite the intense speed and air resistance.

She noticed everyone's shocked expressions as she crossed the bridge into the Kingdom. From their reactions she thought she must have been absent for a long time. They probably thought she was dead.

"Is it really you?" one the castle guards asked as she approached them.

"Of course it's me! Didn't Eugene tell you already? How long have I been gone?"

"Your majesty, you're more than three days _early_ as scheduled. How are you here?"

"I-I dunno. You're not gonna believe this, but I was abducted by aliens and somehow they dropped me off right near the Snuggly Duckling."

"Aliens? Like unidentified objects floating in the sky? That is all myths and legends. You can't be serious, can you?"

"How much myth and legend was that flower? Or my hair? Look, just escort me in, and I'll explain everything to my parents."

"Very well then."

Rapunzel entered the castle. She wasn't sure she could convince anyone of her experiences but she knew what she saw.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Rapunzel!"

They both gave her a hug.

"You're early," her mom remarked, "Where's Eugene?"

"Still on his way here, I think. Look, I don't expect you to believe me, but I was abducted by aliens."

"Aliens?"

"Just let me get the whole story out. While we spent a night on a beach to let our captain rest I noticed some strange lights coming from the forest behind us. He told me to stay back but I didn't listen. Curiosity got the best of me and those aliens, whoever they were, dragged me onboard their space ship. I woke up and heard a lot of strange things I didn't understand. They talked about experimenting on people and Infinity Stones. Then I looked over and saw someone else there with me, but she was out of it. All I know is that her name is Merida. Then they knocked me out again, and I woke up back near here."

Her parents stood still.

"Look, it's me," Rapunzel assured them.

"Of course you're our daughter. I don't believe you could make up something like that. Shocking, but it's the only explanation we have. How was Arendelle?"

"Oh my god. Here comes another long story. Ummm…well. The whole place kinda went under some snow."

"In the summer?"

"Elsa has ice and snow powers. She lost control."

"What?"

"They're tied to her emotions, I think. I guess growing up in isolation with them and being that it was Coronation Day she'd become overly worked up to say the least. She put up a blizzard over the entire place and froze Anna's heart when she tried to get her to stop it, which would've frozen her to death if it were not for an act of true love. It wasn't a kiss, if you're wondering. She stopped Hans of the Southern Isles from killing Elsa which pretty much counts as true love. He wanted to kill her and marry Anna so he could take the throne. And then, Elsa regained control because of that and got rid of all the snow. We all celebrated and she did some non-harmful and wonderful things with her powers."

"Wait, so Anna saved herself, and the whole place with an act of true love? Did Hans really want to do all that to take throne? That's quite a story."

"It's crazy, I know, but hopefully Eugene can tell you more when he gets here."

Rapunzel went back to her room to give herself some alone time after everything that happened. A magically caused summer snowstorm was one thing, but being abducted by aliens made the former seem very normal in comparison.

She was overly cautious when opening her bedroom door. Never before had she exerted so much focus on such a simple task.

"Please stay on there. Please stay on there." She repeated that a few times.

"Rapunzel, your majesty," a voice said, "What's going on? How are you here?"

"Wilshire hey! I-I'm back early. Look, it's a long story that I don't expect you to believe."

"Oh come on Punz. You're the product of a magical flower. You of all people can tell us anything."

"Yeah, it's not like that. Look, eventually I'll make sure everyone knows the whole story, but right now, I need some space. I'm really burned out."

Wilshire left and Rapunzel calmly opened her door without yanking it off its hinges.

"Thank god," she muttered.

* * *

**A/Q: I know they're vaguely described in this chapter, but what do you think about Rapunzel's feats so far?**


	3. Going Vigilante

Rapunzel knew well of her superhuman-ness, but wanted to make sure she could carry herself in a normal fashion. She had to get used to operating as if she were a normal person.

"OK. First task: close the window curtains without destroying them," she told herself and Pascal her first night back.

She ever so gently pulled it a little bit over and stopped. Then she continued a little bit more. Then she stopped again, and then continued once more until it was all the way over.

"Yes! Yes! Plus one for me!" she shouted in glee.

Pascal reminded her she had more to do.

"Yeah, I know. I still have to get into bed. Ugh."

Staying in the same mindset, she was overly cautious, making sure she didn't pull the bed sheets right off and untuck them in one move. Pascal squealed impatiently.

"What? I'm doing it slowly for obvious reasons."

After nearly ten seconds the sheets were finally opened enough to allow her into the bed.

"Now pulling it back over…"

This time, she felt comfortable tucking in herself with half the time.

"Phew. Now if there was only a way to stop hearing all these noises."

Pascal crawled onto her nightstand to give her some room. Despite the enhanced senses, she did fall asleep after learning they were akin to muscle memory. Just as she learned only to use a tiny fraction of her enormous strength, she learned to tune the extra sounds out.

The next morning, Rapunzel impulsively pulled the bed sheets off…right off the bed.

"Great. I guess morning clumsiness just got a lot worse."

She got onto her feet and stretched herself out, making sure that she was in the right state to go about everything.

"OK Pascal, gotta brush my teeth."

Pascal squirmed.

"It's the morning. I wasn't fully awake when I did that," she assured him.

She was playing it safe, making sure she didn't accidentally break the shelf the toothbrush was on or crush the toothbrush itself.

"See, I'm getting the hang of this."

She got dressed without a problem and met Wilshire again.

"Hey Will, I was gonna tell you that long story."

"Oh your parents already let everyone know. I carried out the king's word. What was it like, being in an alien spaceship and all?"

"Well it was weird to say the least. I saw some beds and a lot of alien equipment, which I could only assume was the place where they experimented on people. I don't even know what was up with Merida, if that's actually her name. It's like there was some sort of sleeping curse on her. I couldn't wake her up."

"You think they did anything to you?"

Rapunzel took a moment. She wanted to tell the truth, but was concerned about letting everyone know too early.

"I'm not too sure," she answered, "They probably did, but nothing really feels wrong so far. Mind keeping an eye out?"

"Sure."

Rapunzel spent most of her first full day reuniting with everyone. While the kingdom's response wasn't anything close to the return party, it was still a sight to see her arrive back three days early. Not everyone brought the alien abduction claim, but most could believe that some otherworldly event allowed her to travel there so quickly.

"Ya know, either you're lying and are just one fast girl, or somethin' really freaky actually got ya," Hook Hand greeted her.

"Oh come on I would never abandon Eugene."

"Hooray, you got abducted!" Shorty asserted.

"That's what I've been trying to tell everyone," Rapunzel said in a sing-song tone, "I had a dream and I've always looked to the stars. I just never thought I'd go up there."

For every touch she made, she was still trying not to cause any unintentional harm, and luckily didn't. She made it through the entire day without causing one accident.

* * *

That night, however, she wanted to continue testing her powers, even after a full day of practically not using them. Giving in to her curiosity, she wanted to discover more potential applications and wanted to increase her level of control. She used her super jump to sneak out of the castle via her window. Using her speed, she ran out of the kingdom, not stopping until civilization was well out of sight.

Rapunzel's senses allowed her to see surprisingly well in the dark. She could still perceive everything in the forest with great clarity. Summoning her hair to pull herself up onto a nearby tree branch, she opened things up.

"OK. Stay focused."

She went on and off trees, wanting to get used to the feeling of jumping around. Off the first one to the ground, and then up for the next over and over again. As she grew more confident and made fewer mistakes, she increased the rate of doing it. Soon she was going about it over and over without a hiccup. At some point, she became brave enough to try swinging with her hair again. This time, she made sure to know where she was going and kept it simple. This time, she wouldn't crash into anything.

She summoned her hair and performed a swing that successfully landed her onto the branch of another tree. Using her hair to grab another branch, she tried it again. She proceeded to jump off and swing before letting go. With her short brunette hair she flew through the air before going back to long blonde to grab another branch, repeating the same sequence. She did it again a few times.

"Whoo-hoo!"

However, she realized using the hair-swinging method as a mode of transportation would not be effective unless she had something to grab on to. She did get very much used to doing it nonetheless. She also got more used to throwing around objects with her hair without in danger of hitting herself. While manipulating her hair was all in her head, placing at least one hand on it when in use helped her keep it under control. After all, she had to if she wanted to swing around.

Rapunzel was eager to push further, going as far to try to fully redeem herself from messing up an acrobatic move the last time. She thought if she could perform multiple long distance leaps in a row, she would have to possess enough agility to perform more complex maneuvers. First up was a single forward somersault, which to her delight, she did without a problem. She attempted more moves consisting of cartwheels and higher jumps with more rotations. While she still tripped on some of them, she found it remarkably easy to get the hang of over time.

* * *

Eugene wasn't scheduled to be back for another two days, so Rapunzel was still able to sneak out at night during that time. When he came back, she immediately noticed his shocked look on the bridge. He had to continue the trip with Maximus all on his own.

"Rapunzel?" he blurted when he first saw her, "Rapunzel! Oh my god!" He ran right towards her. "Is that really you? I thought I'd never see you again."

The two kissed and shared a dramatic embrace.

"Well, the good thing about the aliens that abducted me is that they return me to my home planet at least."

"Wait whoa whoa whoa whoa. Aliens?"

"Yeah. Legend has it that beings from other worlds would use their spacefaring vessels to come here and visit, sometimes even abduct and experiment on people. And I think that's what happened to me."

"OK. Can you prove it?"

"Look…"

Rapunzel directed Eugene away from the entry bridge and off the main areas so no one could see them.

"I'm asking you not to freak out, again."

She grabbed and lifted Eugene over her head with a smile.

"Hey you got super strength…oh."

She put him back down. "They experimented on me. They did something to me. So far, I know they gave me super strength, senses, speed, reflexes, and agility, plus a little unbreakable-ness, and oh…my hair." She magically switched from her short brunette hair to her long blonde hair.

"Whoa!"

Rapunzel shushed him.

"Somehow I can get my hair back whenever I want, plus I can do some new things with it."

"Well if it's really back, could you do me a favor and heal this?" Eugene rolled up his left sleeve to reveal a two inch long gash. "I fell and scraped myself."

"This would be the first time I've tried this since Gothel was alive." She wrapped her hair around his arm. "_Heal what-_"

Before she could go on much further, the hair instantly glowed and healed him.

"O-kay. I wasn't expecting that," Rapunzel said, "Check your arm." She made her hair disappear and revert back to being short and brunette. The wound was completely healed, no incantation necessary.

"Uhhh..so if I'm getting this right, you don't even need to sing? You can put your hair right on there and just heal it?"

"I guess I know now. I've been trying out my powers after I got back but I still don't even if that's all I have."

"Does anyone else know?"

"No, just me and you. I told everyone I was abducted and experimented on, but this is just between us. For now."

Eugene was the only person she felt she could trust telling at first. News of her supposed alien abduction was already very much for the kingdom to handle, and she didn't want to shock them even further. To lighten the mood the two decided to spend the evening in an outdoor café to get caught up.

"I know I'm back and safe now, but I hope you handled everything ok without me," Rapunzel started.

"I couldn't sleep at all that night," Eugene admitted, "I just couldn't believe I had to go on without you. I had to accept that you wouldn't be coming back. Now I can't even believe you're here _before_ me."

"You want the whole story?"

Eugene nodded.

"First thing that happened when I woke up in their ship was that I immediately noticed the super senses. I could hear my captors talking like they were actually in the room with me, but they weren't. And just somehow they were speaking our language. They were discussing some alien things like Infinity Stones and experimenting on people…and I'm trying to remember, something about a serum. And then I explored the room a little bit and came across someone else from _our planet_."

"So, there was another Earthling aboard with you?"

"She was asleep and wouldn't wake up. If I didn't know any better I'd say she time traveled. Her clothes were out of place, more like medieval stuff. It's weird, but I know what I saw. There was something there that said her name was Merida. That's all I could remember from my time onboard that thing."

"OK but how did you-"

"Get back here? That's an even bigger mystery. Those guys dumped me off right near the Snuggly Duckling. And that's when I discovered most everything else about my powers. I met your former friends and accidentally hit them far. And I mean pretty far."

"You saw the Stabbingtons? Seems to me like they _knew _to drop you off there. Isn't that a bit suspicious?"

"I didn't think about that. Wait…now I'm remembering them saying something about wanting to take me in particular."

"So they do know some things about you."

"I guess they can spy on us as well."

The two spent quite the time at the café even after they finished their food. They thought they lost each other and wanted to spend time together more than ever. When they finally returned to the castle for a night's sleep, Rapunzel reminded Eugene about adjusting to her powers.

"After I realized I had the strength I overthought everything I did. I thought I was gonna break everything. Luckily at this point I've got some control," Rapunzel assured him.

"Just don't squeeze me too tight in bed now."

"Oh I won't."

* * *

A few hours into the night, Rapunzel sneaked out again. She hoped Eugene would understand her going out to test her powers more. That's not what she ended up doing.

While she was making her way out through back alleys, she encountered a man being harassed by three thugs. It chilled her spine and only reminded her of the time earlier with the Stabbingtons.

"We told you to cooperate, little man," one of the thugs scolded him.

"Please, I-I never wanted any trouble," the victim begged.

She couldn't stand it. She had to stop them.

"Hey guys," she started, "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

The thugs released him and focused their attention on her. From a good distance away, Rapunzel grabbed the closest one and threw him behind her via her hair, knocking him out. She next engaged the other two. They each pulled out a long knife, causing her to freeze.

"Oh my god ok ok," she surrendered as she put her hands up, "I'm bringing fists in to a knife fight-whoa!"

They charged at her. Again, her reflexes and agility allowed her to dodge their swings and get inside their long reach. She was only five foot two inches. The thugs easily had to have been over six nine each. She ducked and reached back to perform an overhead throw on the first one. The second one attempted to take her head off with a sweep but she simply jumped and whirled over him to evade it. Confused, he didn't know what was happening before she kicked the back of his left shin, fracturing it.

"Arrrgghh!"

Rapunzel ran away from him and leaped onto a roof to contemplate. She was at odds with herself. On one hand it was scary and reckless. She could have died. At the same time, it seemed like the correct thing to do. She saved a man from a group of people that brought back memories of her experiences escaping the tower with Eugene. They were the types that were selfish, greedy, and violent, willing to go through any means to get what they want.

* * *

Eugene questioned where Rapunzel went the next morning, and she felt hesitant telling him the whole thing.

"I told you I've been testing my powers, right?" Rapunzel told him.

"Yeah…"

"Well last night I wanted to do that, but instead I ended up beating down some thugs."

"You _what_?"

"They were harassing some random poor guy. I couldn't just stand there."

"So you just…you used-"

"Yeah, I did."

"I'm just worried. I know you got some power but you need to be careful."

"I was thinking the same, but somehow it just felt right doing it. I feel like I could help so many people."

Eugene felt uneasy. He just wanted to have a normal life with her after she saved his life, but ever since Rapunzel's abduction he knew. Things would be different.


	4. Enter Merida

**A/N: Before anyone asks, I realize Merida shares a lot of similarities with Green Arrow as I have written her. She's an archer that wears a green outfit. She's got a tragic backstory that will be revealed more as the story goes on (just like in the Arrow TV series).**

* * *

Merida had no clue where she was or what happened to her. Last she remembered, she thought she died, killed in action. She woke up in the middle of a forest right next to a small and mysterious metal vessel. A sword, her bow and arrow, and a few flashbacks were the only things she possessed.

_"You have been asleep for over three centuries. Try to relax. We didn't want to break it to you too quickly. You were rescued from the bottom of that river and everything was done to try and save you," a voice said._

_"Three _centuries_?" Merida inquired, "How is that possible? No one can live that long!"_

_"Suspended animation. Look around you. We're not from your planet. We have the technology to keep someone around for as long as we want. Don't worry, we'll send you back."_

Merida got up. Three centuries. Whatever she had in her old life was gone now. They held up their promise and sent her back all right, but she couldn't figure out who they were. She could only confirm they were indeed extraterrestrials and that they sent her back to her planet via the vessel. It was presumably the future for her, so she needed to find out where she was and what everything was like.

_"What I gave you…the serum, it not only permanently healed your injuries but has physiologically buffed you to the peak of human potential"_

_"What's that supposed to mean?"_

Merida still didn't understand what they meant by that. She didn't think she was stronger than before, seeing that her build remained the same. The only change she could notice was her hair. It was shorter and tied back, less curly than before.

She first decided to climb up a tree to get her bearings straight. The climb felt easier than usual, but she was too desperate to wonder why. She only wanted to get up there. By the position of the sun, she guessed that it was noon. Not much civilization could be seen in the horizon, except for one. In the distance, a castle appeared to be standing far above the trees. It was several miles away, but it was the only place she could go.

She climbed back down going for a hunt. Sneaking through the trees, she quietly approached a group of deer. As she drew an arrow, her right foot slipped a little and accidentally snapped a twig, causing them to run away. Instinctively, she went after them and fired a shot while moving and off balance anyway, which remarkably hit one of them.

She always knew she was a good shot, but that one should not have hit. She was in an awkward position when she fired it. It couldn't have been accurate. Maybe she was just lucky.

She approached the dead dear and proceeded to cut off all edible meat with her sword. There was a suitable area a few yards away to start a fire but Merida knew she couldn't get too comfortable. She ate quickly, maybe too quickly, before setting on foot towards the castle. Not having a horse limited her, but she was still fine with setting up camp if she needed to.

Continuing on traveling, she began to realize the moving shot wasn't a fluke. She found herself shooting arrows at a rate that was well beyond what a normal human could achieve. Hunting was a part of her lifestyle and she was an incredibly good shot to begin with, but she couldn't believe how much faster she was doing it. She found herself getting less tired and worn out than she should have given the intense hunting and the numerous tree climbs. Now she had a better idea of what that mysterious man meant.

* * *

Amidst all of Rapunzel's endeavors, she found herself diving in to yet another one, but one that was quite different from the rest. During the day, she would continue what she had always been doing, but spent more time napping. This was to allow herself to moonlight as a vigilante. Night in and night out, she would save innocents and beat up thugs.

She came to using the same formula every time she went out. After dressing as a commoner post-dinner, she would first jump onto the closest roof out of the castle. The kingdom had grown substantially since she first returned to it, but her super hearing allowed her to detect if someone needed saving. If so, she would make her way towards the sounds rapidly jumping rooftop to rooftop. If not, she would proceed to the next rooftop and wait for anything.

Her approach to engaging baddies wasn't complicated at all, and didn't need to be. She would simply jump right into the area where the action was happening, say something random to get their attention, and finally summon her hair to pull them away. The sheer force used to throw them was usually enough to knock them out. If it didn't or there were too many, fighting them hand to hand would almost always incapacitate them because of her reflexes, agility, and sheer strength. In fact, she had so much strength she had to pull her punches or risk causing fatal injuries. Nevertheless, she was putting herself in danger every time she went out at night. Eugene was right.

Because of the nature of her vigilantism, she couldn't keep a low profile for long. Word spread among commoners that a mysterious hero emerged wielding incredibly long blonde hair. There was only one person it could be, but it was impossible. Rapunzel lost her hair for good before reuniting with the kingdom. They questioned whether or not her supposed alien abduction had something to do with it (which it did). However, it wasn't until she came across a noisier crime scene that she gained notoriety across the kingdom, and not exactly in the way she liked.

One night, she followed the sound of a window breaking to an armed robbery of a jewelry shop. She jumped down from a roof to see two large, knife-wielding assailants threatening the shop owner. As always, she interrupted them.

"You know, I'm wondering, why jewelry? If you want money, you should go to the bank!"

With two halves of her hair she immediately went for a throw that launched them out of the store through the broken window. It was lame, but it was the only thing she could think of saying.

"Are you all right?" she asked the owner as she ran inside. He hurried away and didn't give an answer. Then suddenly, one of the bandits threw his knife at her while she wasn't looking. She dodged it.

That was new. She felt something coming for the back of her head. Perhaps her senses were just that good, or she had some sort of extra awareness to things moving around her.

"Uhhh…I guess you're gonna have to try harder than that," she hesitantly taunted them.

The other threw his knife as Rapunzel charged at him. She jumped and whirled through the broken window to avoid it. Right after she landed on her feet back outside, he swung at her head with a punch in response. She got under it and elbowed him, knocking him well away. The first one went after her. She somersaulted over to avoid him and quickly pulled him with her hair right into a punch. Making her hair vanish and go back to being short, she let the force of the blow send him soaring through the air towards his fellow fallen comrade.

She nearly died again, but was glad she found a way to end the situation.

* * *

The next morning, news of her nighttime activities reached her parents.

"Rapunzel, what's this?" her father asked her, showing her the newspaper.

_"Incredible! Former Lost Princess Stops Armed Robbery!"_ the headline read.

"It says here you displayed superhuman strength and you used your hair. Your _long_ hair. Is there something you'd like to tell us?"

"Ugh okay okay," Rapunzel sighed, "I was planning on telling everyone. I just didn't wanna spill everything that happened to me so quick."

"So you have…magic now?"

"I can't really say. I'm sure those aliens did something to me through some sort of experimentation."

Eugene arrived into the room.

"Good morning Eugene!" Rapunzel greeted him.

"Hey, have you seen the crowds outside?" he asked.

"Crowds?"

"I was about to get to that," her father remarked.

Rapunzel looked out the window to see an unusually large group of commoners gathered outside the castle. "Punz! Punz! Punz! Punz!" they chanted. She was always a big name around the kingdom, but never before had she gotten that much attention.

She again felt conflicted. When she went out for the day she was bombarded by countless people who praised her deeds, whom she tolerated despite them being annoying. On the other side of things, she noticed a small minority that grew distrustful of her taking things into her own hands.

* * *

Their reactions did not stop her from going out that night. After seeking out suspicious sounds for a few hours, she began to think perhaps the perpetrators became less willing to play with her around. She eventually found some action, so she reached the scene quickly by leaping rooftop to rooftop and jumping down right into the alley. She spotted an innocent man and promptly got him to safety.

"You guys should know by now. Your actions are futile," she greeted the thugs.

"Actually I think yours are, princess," one of them warned her.

What started as an encounter with two quickly turned to six. It seemed the thugs planned a coordinated attack that put her over her head. She threw the first one with her hair behind towards the rest, causing him to collide with another member of his buddies. The second tried to grab her. She spun to dodge and hit him hard towards a wall in one swift motion. Next, she turned around to go after another, only to be interrupted by a sudden flurry of arrows that non-lethally took the rest out.

Rapunzel looked up to spot where the shooter was, but wasn't able to see anyone perched on the low rooftops. Her confused silence was momentarily broken by the voice of a young female.

"You should know what you're getting yourself into next time," she said.

Rapunzel turned around to see the mystery sniper carrying her bow. She was in an all green outfit, complete with a tight-fitting long-sleeved shirt, a hooded vest over her shirt, moderately fitting pants, and brown shoes. She was equipped with a quiver of arrows on her back and a sword. Removing her hood, she revealed herself.

"Merida? Wait-"

"What? How do you know me?" Merida cut Rapunzel off.

"I was abducted by aliens. I saw you onboard their spaceship."

This caused Merida to have a flashback.

_"__You need to meet someone back on your planet who has been here, on this ship. Don't worry. We'll put you pretty close to her kingdom."_

"It seems you can do some not normal things. You're Rapunzel…the princess?" Merida asked.

"Oh…I forgot you're obviously new here," Rapunzel answered, noticing her accent.

"Look, why don't we find a better place to talk?"

Merida astoundingly hopped off one of one the walls and onto the opposite roof. Most buildings in Corona weren't much taller than three stories and that one was only a single story establishment, but still.

"You coming or not?" she implored.

Rapunzel leaped onto the same roof in one bound.

"Are you-"

"I'll explain. Let's just get away from here," Merida cut her off.

The fact that Merida could jump between the same rooftops Rapunzel did was intriguing. Rapunzel almost thought the same exact thing happened to her…or perhaps she was just in good shape. She followed Merida until they were far enough away and out of sight for a more relaxing conversation.

"You saw me on that ship, right?" Merida asked as Rapunzel shrugged, "It's just I know I was there but I lost my memories of what happened."

"Yeah. I tried waking you up, but you were really out of it. What were you doing there?"

"Well I brought you here to tell the entire story, so here goes. Based on my flashbacks so far, one of those non-Earth people, whoever they were, told me he kept me alive for a very long time. I had a life and thought I died, but he said I was rescued. I hope you believe me so far."

"Oh those guys were pretty crazy. I'm pretty sure they could do that."

"Anyway, according to him they kept me alive but they weren't able to heal my injuries, until he got something that could. Apparently it turned me into what they called a 'peak human'. Before I ended up here he told me to find you."

"So that's how you were jumping like that. What was your old life like?"

"I used to be a princess in a kingdom called DunBroch. It's in the Scottish Highlands and I'm not sure if it still exists. I was the best archer in the land and became quite the figure there, but it wasn't always that way. Before I was a rebellious one, never wanting to be what my mother wanted to be. She wanted me to be a 'proper' royal princess. I wanted freedom and hated her for making me do what she wanted.

"I dunno what it's like now, but in those days a princess had to get married not out of love, but for things like alliances. One day three suitors from the kingdom's different clans arrived competing for my hand in marriage to help keep everything stable. They were crude and unattractive. At that point I couldn't stand it anymore and disobeyed. I wanted to change my fate. You see where I came from there were these magical spirits called the Will O' the Wisps, which can lead you to your fate."

"You've had some experience with magic?" Rapunzel interrupted, "What do those things do?"

"I followed them to a witch and I asked her to 'change' my mother so I could get out of the whole thing. That ended up turning her into a bear. I thought everything went horribly wrong. But I reversed it and realized I needed to mend the bond torn by pride, my pride. If I didn't she would have stayed a bear forever. Everything changed after that. She agreed to let the suitors marry whoever they wanted.

"Some time later our kingdom became united against a common enemy. At first, we thought all was lost, but I changed fate yet again. I helped rally the clans. I inspired people. We fought with honor. We achieved victory, but not without a cost. I met my apparent death at the hands of a dragon."

"Wait whoa," Rapunzel interrupted again, "A dragon?"

"The creature burned me and I fell into a river. Next thing I knew I woke up in that ship you were talking about."

* * *

**A/N: Next up: Mother Gothel comes back. The movie seemed to imply she's a witch with some magical powers (disappearing acts, etc). How do you think Punz and Merida will do against her?**


	5. Return of Mother Gothel

News of Merida's arrival spread through Corona like wildfire. The kingdom practically spent an entire day of festivities dedicated to her, intrigued by her unexpected appearance. Her presence convinced more people that Rapunzel was actually abducted and experimented on by otherworldly beings. To them Merida was a walking specimen of history, having been under suspended animation for a very long time, and wanted to hear all of her stories. They were impressed by her archery skills, which were far beyond anyone they could think of, and gladly provided her with arrows so she could demonstrate.

"These are quite nicely done. What are these paintings of?" Merida asked. Rapunzel was giving her a tour of the castle and they came across a group of wall paintings.

"I did these myself. That was me about three years ago. It's a long story."

"You did that? You're quite talented. So much detail of the room, and the tower, and…who's that? And what are these lights all about?"

"You wanna hear the whole thing?"

"I've already told mine. Go 'head."

Rapunzel sighed and brought Merida to her room. Rapunzel sat down on her bed to tell her story. When she got around to part about meeting Eugene, Merida had another flashback.

_"I don't expect you to understand everything I tell you and even I have trouble believing it, but I chose her because I was mysteriously led to her by some magic, and found she possessed some herself. Knowing that, I wanted to see how a specific kind of cosmic radiation would affect her," the same mysterious man told her._

_"What kind of magic?" Merida asked._

_"She'll explain that when you meet her. When we released her she seemed to be in healthy condition, but based on my tests the radiation genetically altered her. That is not magic, I promise you. Expect her to possess out of the ordinary abilities. The so-called 'magic' is outside my area of expertise unfortunately." _

_"Sorry. What's all that supposed to mean?"_

Merida snapped back to reality.

"Merida? Are you okay?" Rapunzel interrupted herself.

"I had a flashback. You were talking about your hair right? It had all the flower power and you would lose it if cut?"

"Y-yeah. What did'ya see?"

"Some conversation about magic in you, cosmic radiation, and you getting genetically altered," Merida responded, "Go on."

"I…don't know what that means but anyway. After I realized Mother Gothel wasn't really my mother she restrained me. Eugene came back to the tower and was stabbed by her. Instead of letting me save him with my hair he decided to cut it instead, which severed Gothel's connection to everlasting life and she died. Just when I thought I couldn't save him it turned out I still had the flower's power in me. With a drop of a tear, he came back to life."

"Sounds romantic." Merida paused, still questioning everything she had seen in her flashbacks.

"What is it?"

"One of the aliens you told me about. You call them aliens, right? I'm confused. He told me you would have powers not from magic. Then he told me he wanted you because you had magic, which you just said is the hair. I guess he thought something would happen to it but he has no clue how."

"Really? I know something happened to my magic since I can get my hair back whenever I want now. I thought these guys were advanced beyond our wildest dreams and would at least have a deeper understanding than we do."

"We still have a lot of questions I see. Could you show me a little of what the world's like now?"

Rapunzel led Merida to the castle library.

"What's this?" Merida asked, noticing the model of Corona.

"It's a model of the city. We like to keep it here to show how much it's expanding. Before there was just forest past that bridge you came in on and now it's practically another village. There's also some new stuff being built over the water."

"Who made this? This is amazing. Don't tell me you did-"

"Oh no, I didn't make this. One of our servants got some of his craftsmen friends to make this. It's stunning, but it's also a reminder of the challenges the kingdom faces. Population growth is hard to deal with."

"I never imagined so many people living together like this. I'm used to smaller."

"Here." Rapunzel pulled out books detailing the history between her time and the one she ended up in. "These are pretty much all the information on major historical events that happened while you were gone. At least this is what we got."

Merida was very intrigued by the advancements in weaponry and how wars across the continent changed the borders. She was also amazed seeing how other technological advancements allowed the citizens of Corona to live the way they do.

"This is all incredible. I never would've known."

* * *

The kingdom finished off Merida's day with lanterns exactly like the ones used for the former Lost Princess, but done instead for the purpose of paying tribute to Merida's old life. Her kin once mourned her loss, but now she had to mourn the loss of everyone she knew, especially her parents and her three brothers. Having to restart everything from scratch proved difficult to sympathize with, and the kingdom wanted to make her feel as welcome as possible.

Merida continued her conversations with various kingdom citizens, giving them further and further insight. Rapunzel and Eugene sailed out on the water in a canoe once again. It was a quiet, romantic evening for them reflecting on all their recent experiences. If only it stayed that way.

While they were walking back to the castle a nearby building suddenly burst into flames. The sound of it was nearly as loud as a cannon going off, causing everyone to flee. Rapunzel responded to the ensuing screams by turning on her hero mode. She used her senses to guesstimate the number of people inside and went for it. Luckily, it appeared there was perhaps only one or two, as the building in question contained a blacksmith shop that was closing up. She saw the first man trapped under a log. She tossed it away with her hair and approached him. He was carried outside, who had already sustained burns and a bruised chest. She then went back in going for men detected in the back of the shop.

Rapunzel was glad she wasn't being fazed by the heat, but it presented more questions. She couldn't feel it at all, despite the fire progressing at an alarming rate. Debris was already raining down on her during her second trip inside, inducing her to weave through and make a run for it. The first one she saw in the back room had suffered a broken leg. She carried him out the back door and quickly healed it with her hair. Going in one last time she saw the last guy trapped under some fallen fireplace bricks and almost unconscious. Testing her theory of being resistant to heat, she picked them up and threw them away by hand, allowing her to carry him away. She checked her hands, but they were fine.

After everyone was out she jumped onto the roof of a building across the street, gaining a vantage point to try and spot what caused it. Fires like that one aren't supposed to happen. Sure, there was an explosion, but it shouldn't have progressed so quickly. She turned her head a few times, but couldn't identify any potential culprits. Merida wanted to see as well, running in the opposite direction of the crowd.

"Merida!" Rapunzel called out to her.

"What happened? Why is there a fire?" Merida stopped and asked.

"I got no idea. I heard an explosion and-"

_"Hello, Rapunzel."_

Rapunzel turned around to see Mother Gothel levitating in the air a few yards from her, causing her to fall onto her back shocked.

"Is that-"

"Yes. Yes it is," Rapunzel cut Merida off, "How…how are you here? You're supposed to be dead."

"Magic," Gothel answered as she floated towards the main street, "Dark magic."

Gothel waved her hand and stopped the fire. Rapunzel leaped off the roof for a punch to Gothel's jaw. Gothel saw her coming and telekinetically flung her back down to the street with the flick of a wrist.

"Rapunzel, please! That is no way to treat your mother!" she taunted in mock offense.

Unscathed by the impact of hitting the ground so hard, Rapunzel got up. "You are not my mother!" she yelled back. She grabbed Gothel with her hair and pulled her down into the path of another punch, which this time, successfully landed right after she made her hair vanish. Gothel was sent dozens of feet through the air and crashed into a flower stand.

Rapunzel and Merida ran towards her. The collision should have knocked her out, and it indeed appeared so, until they heard something strange. It sounded like the broken bones were rapidly healing by themselves, like her entire body had a healing factor. Realizing this, they quickly backed away.

"Look at you, Rapunzel. Always wanting me to be the bad guy. Fine. I should tell you then, I didn't come here without backup," Gothel warned in a sing-song tone.

As they saw Gothel place some sort of magical shield on herself a group of gargoyles suddenly flew in. One of them snatched Merida. Clearly with the intent of separating the two, they took her to the opposite side of the kingdom and threw her onto a random roof. Bystanders ran away from that area as well.

Pulling herself up, Merida drew an arrow. The flying creatures were violent and vicious. They were pretty much small lions with dragon wings, and had sharp, extending claws. There was also many, enough to take over the entire island. She knew they meant business and had to take them down. To begin her counter onslaught, she shot down the one that brought her there, then immediately turned around and shot down another.

Because of her condition, Merida was fast enough to hit them even at close range, despite their numbers and high movement speeds. She was sniping them left and right at an amazing rate without missing a single shot. For a while, it seemed the gargoyles couldn't even scratch her. But her streak couldn't last.

Halfway through her quiver, Merida saw a big one show up out in the horizon. The comparably oversized gargoyle was unquestionably their leader, so she jumped down to the street to give herself more room to work with. She fired one for the creature's chest and one for his head. It didn't hurt him much and only angered him further. He landed on the ground and charged at her. She could only fire off three more before being forced to draw her sword and engage in melee combat. He extended his claws and began to swing at her on his hind legs. She blocked the creature's powerful strikes with ease, but was unable to gain any sort of advantage because of how random they were.

She switched tactics, choosing to run away and leading the creature on a wild chase. Having gained enough distance, she turned around, anticipating him going for an overhead slash. A moment before he predictably did so, Merida ran towards him and ducked. Getting underneath him, she plunged her sword into his gut and pulled it out, grunting with effort as she did so. The creature's skin was tough, but that did the trick. He feebly tried to go for one last move. Merida darted and wall hopped off a nearby building, landing her square on his back. She then stabbed him in the neck, which finished him off, finally.

She ran back to where she dropped her bow and readied herself to shoot down more gargoyles, but the demise of the big guy signaled a retreat. At least they were gone, but one of them flew away in the opposite direction of the others. She went after him.

* * *

Rapunzel was keeping Gothel busy enough after being left alone. She figured she was up against a wide arsenal of magic, and didn't want to know what Gothel could do to her should she let her guard down for too long.

She went on the attack immediately to start the fight, using her hair to grab Gothel around the arms and waist and throwing her. It didn't injure her like before. Realizing Gothel's shield protected her from harm Rapunzel went all out and chained together new combos. Sometimes she would use her hair to throw Gothel around from a distance, making her smash into the ground and collide into nearby buildings a few times. Sometimes she would pull Gothel towards her into a punch or kick, letting Gothel fly about before summoning the hair back to grab her again. Even when Gothel managed to hit her with various telekinetic and energy attacks, Rapunzel would jump right back up and use her hair while airborne. Gothel had little time to mount a good offense as she was totally surprised by Rapunzel's powers.

However, the two did not remain alone for long. The gargoyle Merida chased came back to where Rapunzel and Gothel were and snatched Rapunzel. Merida attempted to fire an arrow at Gothel's legs but it was telekinetically halted. Gothel then used her TK again to toss Merida into a wall, knocking her out.

These creatures were also stronger than they looked. Rapunzel had to use more strength than she would have liked to break free. When she did, she was over the surrounding sea.

"Hyrrah!"

Falling several stories, she used her hair to try and grab something in a desperation move before landing in the water on her back. Just somehow, she did. She noticed the tension, so she swam and pulled herself towards the other end of her hair. When she looked up to see where she was going she noticed she was pulling herself right towards Corona's entry bridge.

"That's impossible!" she blurted. There was nothing to get her hair caught on there that she knew of. When she finally reached the bridge she saw it. The hair wasn't actually entwined in anything, but instead stuck to the stone itself like a strong adhesive. She still had much to learn about her hair.

She released herself and grabbed one of the bridge's lamp posts to climb back up. She ran back to where she was snatched, going fast enough to reach there within a quarter of a minute. Merida was the only one there, and while most everyone was safely away from the action, she could hear another heartbeat in her proximity. It had to be Gothel. Rapunzel always knew the woman who kidnapped her could magically pop in and out of sight, but she could at least track her now.

_"By the way Rapunzel, I was wondering, why such power now? Perhaps you were hiding it all this time?"_

Rapunzel could here Gothel's voice echo through the street. She was definitely present…somewhere.

_"You don't have to answer, darling. I'm just curious," _Gothel continued.

Rapunzel woke up Merida, hoping to get some help from her. Gothel's heartbeat was still jumping around all over the place, making it difficult for Rapunzel to get a lock on. Without warning, the beating sound rapidly became louder and louder.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Rapunzel ordered Merida.

Gothel popped in right behind them and hit Rapunzel with a spell. She tried to retaliate with her hair but couldn't do it. It stayed short and brunette.

"Go ahead, try. It'll never work," Gothel sneered, "I've temporarily cut you off you're your magic." Gothel took advantage of the opportunity and summoned ropes to bind both Rapunzel and Merida. She pushed them to the ground.

Or did she? Were Rapunzel's powers truly magical? She could still hear Merida's and Gothel's heartbeats. Something was off about the whole thing.

"You two are starting to get on my nerves." Gothel calmly walked away from them.

Rapunzel feared for everyone's lives given all the magic Gothel had displayed thus far. She thought she wasn't getting out of it and would fail to stop Gothel from harming others. In that moment her adrenaline went up higher and higher, allowing her to push her limits more than she ever had before. She was about to learn yet another thing about herself.

She broke herself free and stood up. Her entire body was glowing bright yellow while she felt a huge energy surge. Gothel noticed what happened and turned back. She promptly went for another magical attack, this time to knock her out. Rapunzel could only put her hands out in front of her as she couldn't use her hair, her primary defense against Gothel's magic. Expecting to be hit, she instead fired a beam of light from each hand. The involuntary attack knocked Gothel backwards and burned her.

"Punz?" Merida gasped, "What was that?"

Rapunzel was motionless.

"I…I got no idea," Rapunzel stuttered.

"You know where to find me, Rapunzel!" Gothel goaded as she flew away.

"Well, glad she's away," Merida said in relief, "Now if you could tell me you could do that again that would be great."

* * *

**A/N: Punz and Merida stomp round 1 10/10. There will be a rematch...**


	6. Some Questions Answered

Rapunzel and Merida spent much of the next afternoon pondering over what they were going to do about Gothel. It was obviously some kind of ploy, but if they let her sit around too long she may lose her patience and come back to attack the kingdom again.

"Awake enough?" Rapunzel asked.

"I should be. It's noon," Merida answered.

"Look, I just wanna end this, okay? I'd rather you stay out of this. Gothel was out of my life and I don't want her back in. It's my problem."

"I know that, but we don't know what she's up to, or what she wants. If you are to have fate on your side, you need to be prepared. Look, I 'died' defending my kingdom, and I want to honor that. Gothel is obviously powerful enough to be a threat to all of us. I'm helping you, whether you like it or not."

Rapunzel reluctantly led her back into the castle library, where they worked up quite the sweat questioning both Mother Gothel's and Rapunzel's powers.

"Okay," Rapunzel began, "I got my hair back, and we got a lot of questions to answer now."

"The spell that Gothel cast and whether or not your powers count as magic…and how she's back to begin with?" Merida inquired.

"Right. Well there's information here in the library. Where should we start?"

"I say anything to do with spells and witches would be good."

"Hopefully…"

They did just that, picking out every book that had to do with magic and stacked them on the table. Gothel specifically mentioned dark magic, so they sat down and looked for ways it could bring back someone from the dead.

"I got a hit," Rapunzel said after a while.

"What is it?" Merida asked.

"It says here that if someone has died through magical means, they can be brought back using a piece of their flesh or ashes, some other magical ingredients, and a human sacrifice. At least we know one way someone could be brought back."

"I hope. It seemed like it was her, but there could be some other possibilities. There's a chance she could be an imposter, or she's a clone."

"Well like you said, we don't know what she wants, but we know she's a threat. What's next?"

They next searched for information on spells. It was refreshingly different from all the dark stuff they looked at in the previous books.

"'_How to disable the use of magic'_," Merida read.

"Looks like it wasn't too hard to find," Rapunzel remarked, "Where'd you find it?" Merida slid the book over to her. "Oh, I've seen this book. It just lists some common kinds of magic and using it. The writing's big and looks important, so it's probably a basic thing to do." Rapunzel flipped through the pages. "Umm…well it goes on about ways you could do it. Enchanted objects, enchanted objects, potions,…spells."

"Can I see?"

"Sure." Rapunzel slid the book back over towards Merida.

"'_Listed below are various spells, but it can be done by advanced practitioners with a simple wave of the hand_'… are there any loopholes? I don't see anything else here."

"Nothing on it not working right? Even then I doubt she would've messed it up. She's been around for centuries. I could've sworn she only took away my hair. You said something about my powers not being magic?"

"Yeah, which gives us something else to think about. If it isn't magic, then where is it coming from? You haven't really had the chance to talk about it that much."

"I guess everything besides the hair is somehow not powered by magic. When I first arrived back on the planet it felt like everything around me was unbelievably clear. I could hear every little sound, see every little detail, things like that. My hearing's actually good enough to listen to your heart beating right now. Then I noticed I was stronger, faster, more agile, and harder to break. First time it happened I barely even tried and I hit two guys twice my size a heck of a lot away. The hair is a longer story, no pun intended. Not only can I have it whenever I want, but I can make it disappear and go back to what you see right now. Another plus is that I can make it move with my mind.

"I've been testing myself, but I still got a lot to learn. I decided to fight bad guys and then I noticed something else that was a little suspect. One time someone tried to throw a knife to the back of my head. I dodged it without ever seeing it coming, and I don't really know how I even did it. What happened last night though…"

Merida allowed Rapunzel to let out a breath. "That was your latest discovery?" she butt in.

"It was in the rush of the moment. I thought Gothel was gonna do more damage with me out of the picture. I just felt some energy charging up in me and then I accidentally let it out on her. That wasn't the only thing. Somehow I got my hair stuck onto the bridge like glue."

"Hmmm…interesting. Are you still sure it's not magic? All you told me is certainly is out of the ordinary. If it isn't, that gives us a huge advantage. Do you have anything else around here?"

"Well I do read a lot of books, but I don't really like to read the magic stuff here too much. But I do know this one called: _A Theory of Magic_." Rapunzel got up to pull it off the shelf.

Merida opened the book to its table of contents and noticed something peculiar. After looking through the various other entries the book contained, the last one was simply titled: "_What is magic?_"

"Erm, Punz? Have you seen this yet?"

Rapunzel looked over. "I…don't think so. That's interesting." She flipped through to the back of the book to read it.

_"I have journeyed across many lands to make this book possible, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on the nature of magic to whoever may read this. You might be surprised to learn that, as the author of this book, I am actually a mathematician and scientist. So why am I writing about magic, something that isn't rationally explainable?_

_"Before I thought it was all nonsense, but after I witnessed a family lose a loved one to a being wielding magic, I decided to dedicate a good portion of my studies to it so I could better understand and help people defend against it. Through my time traveling and documenting examples, I began wondering more and more about what makes magic work. It would seem to break many known laws of nature. You cannot get something from nothing, and you must have a strong source of energy to perform the feats I have previously described. Where is it coming from?_

_"The only answer I can give is that it is a kind of energy that isn't understood, but very real. Many times throughout history we've seen the unknown turn into science through increased knowledge and discovery. That could be the case here. However, I still hold some uncertainty about that hypothesis._

_"Sometime during my travels I was brought to the attention of the concept of qi. Those who utilize it claim that it is an energy that permeates everything around us. Through training, they can draw on it to enhance their physical capabilities to superhuman levels as well as develop mild psychic abilities. Some are apparently naturally gifted so much as to be able to use it to project energy. This sounded much like magic when I first learned about it, so I decided to test to see if it was. The test came out negative…"_

Rapunzel skipped a couple of lines.

_"The term 'magic' may very well be only an umbrella term for anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps we should learn to use the term only for the topics I have covered in this book. This contrasts qi, which is more questionable in terms of being scientifically sound, even though there is a hint of mysticism with it. However, you could make the case that it is simply a different side of the same coin. _

_"The point is this: there is still much to learn about how our world works, how our universe works, and what makes it behave the way it does. There may be many more kinds of phenomena out there that have yet to be seen, and we shouldn't be so quick to label them."_

"Well glad someone else would agree my powers aren't totally magical," Rapunzel concluded, "That still doesn't tell me where I'm getting them from."

Merida took a few moments to recall the entire sequence of Gothel's defeat. "I might have a clue."

* * *

"I hope you don't mind me out here with you," Merida said.

"Oh no, not at all. You really think I have the sun's power back?"

"Well you were talking about your hair. It would explain that at least."

After going through some other books, they ventured out into the surrounding forest so they could give themselves ample room as Rapunzel had done before to test herself out.

"I just want to see everything you know you can do," Merida declared. She wanted to see Rapunzel show off and know what she was capable of.

"OK, umm…well. How tall you think these trees are?"

"I'd say four, maybe five stories."

Taking only one lead step, Rapunzel proceeded to jump straight up. She went high enough that her feet were at about the same level as the top of the trees.

Next she went to uproot a relatively smaller tree with her bare hands as a show of strength, just as she did previously. Placing the tree sideways on the ground and breaking off the largest branches, she could now demonstrate using her hair.

Merida saw Rapunzel's hair glow and rapidly grow, shooting itself towards the tree in the blink of an eye and wrapping itself around it. Rapunzel showed a few instances of shortening and lengthening her hair at will. That, along with psychokinetic control of her hair, allowed her to move the tree back and forth. She finished by throwing the tree over her head and far behind her. To perform the move, she rapidly decreased her hair's length. Then she made it vanish in a cloud of yellow sparkles as soon as she exerted the necessary force to throw it over, leaving her with her short brunette hair.

"Whoa," Merida gasped.

"Oh there's more."

Rapunzel leaped into the air, summoned her hair to grab a tree branch, and pulled herself up further to start swinging around. She was now confident she didn't need to know whether or not she could wrap her hair around a branch, thinking about what happened the previous night getting her hair stuck to the bridge.

"Whoo-hoo!"

Shouting in glee, she went through multiple sequences of shooting her hair towards a branch to swing, discarding it to let herself move freely through the air, and summoning it back to swing from a different branch. Sometimes she was swinging high enough to propel herself clear above the trees, somersaulting as she did so.

"I'm impressed," Merida praised as Rapunzel finished, "How were you moving around all those trees like that?"

"I…don't really know. First time trying I was messing up and crashing and falling a few times. Then it just got easier the more I tried."

"Like you know where these trees are without seeing them? From what I can tell you barely have any time to get a look, if you even get one at all."

"Well I do have crazy fast reflexes."

Rapunzel thought about it. Her reaction times were clearly superhuman and she could see very far, but that didn't necessarily mean she knew the correct way to react every time in order to swing the way she did. Plus she even managed to do it gracefully.

"You have anything here that can blindfold me?" Rapunzel asked.

"What?"

"I think somehow I know where things are without seeing. That's why I can move around like that. That's also how I dodged a knife thrown at the back of my head."

"Like a sixth sense?"

"Yeah. And plug my ears"

Merida blindfolded Rapunzel with a piece of cloth and plugged her ears with a few tree leaves. They decided to play a game of tag and Rapunzel was it, starting out far away and well hidden from each other. Her theory was right. She was going after Merida as if she still had her hearing and sight, eventually tagging her after effortlessly running, weaving, and jumping over obstacles.

"Well that answer's that one," Rapunzel concluded as she removed the blindfold and earplugs, "Now, about last night-"

"I was getting to that. I think that one also came from the sun."

"You're kidding right? How can something not magical come from the same source?"

"It sure looked like something that came from the sun. Your entire body was glowing like your hair."

"Well, what's non-magical and uses the sun for its power?"

Rapunzel might have just figured that one out as well.


	7. Bringing The Fight To Her

As Rapunzel stayed in dealing with royal matters the next day, Merida decided to sneak out solo and look for answers. She still didn't know why aliens would want to try to save her to begin with.

"Come on, faster, Max!"

She was retracing her steps on horseback, wanting to go to where she started so she could see what was up with that small alien spacecraft. Maximus decidedly slid to a halt when they finally came across it.

"Just wait here."

Merida unsaddled and cautiously approached it. She didn't know what to expect. Inside, most everything appeared to be in ruins. It was clear the vessel couldn't be brought back to life and working again, except for one thing.

She noticed a mysterious tablet shaped electronic device sitting there in a corner. To her it seemed it was a small, glowing painting that was constantly changing. Out of curiosity, she picked it up. As soon as she did, the screen changed to show a physically fit middle-aged man.

"Hello Merida," he said, causing her to drop it and back away. "No I know what you're thinking, but I'm not some kind of magic mirror. This is pre-recorded. I'm not actually here and I have already said this before you're hearing it now. Go ahead. Try and ask me anything."

The man paused for a few seconds to allow Merida to ask some random questions.

"No, see I can't answer any of that. What you're seeing is just advanced technology from an alien race that is well beyond what anyone on your planet knows. My name is Clint Barton. I've been asked give to a message.

"We don't know who rescued you, but we do know that everything was done to keep you alive, even if that meant keeping you in a virtual time capsule for centuries. You suffered heavy bone fractures and fourth degree burns. Only recently were you given a super-soldier serum that allowed your injuries to heal. Any attempt to fix you up earlier would have likely killed you. To repay the favor for putting you through all this, I've agreed to leave you with some of the tech I use. In one of the compartments in the vessel you landed in there's a high tech collapsible bow and quiver…"

Merida eventually found it. A bow and arrow was far from unfamiliar to her, but she relished the technology in the one it found. They were made of unknown and advanced materials, rather than the old fashioned wood and feathers. The quiver harnessed the power of electricity to screw on different arrowheads and create various "trick" arrows along with a pack of normal ones. The bow had some electricity in it as well, which contained triggers to allow quick selection of a desired trick arrow and a detonation switch.

"I'll start you off with four kinds specialized of arrows, so it shouldn't be that hard to learn. Be careful with everything."

Clint provided many more arrows than she could carry, so she loaded the quiver and took as many extras as she could, leaving behind the rest. She hauled everything back outside, packing them onto Maximus' back.

"This isn't too much for you, is it?" she asked him. Maximus shook his head. "OK. Off we go then!"

* * *

"With your power comes a great responsibility, Rapunzel. You know what is at stake," her father reminded her.

"I know it's a trap, but we need to stop Gothel," Rapunzel asserted.

"Which is why I guess you want to send an entire army to Gothel's tower," Eugene worried.

"We're not sending all of them, just enough to take on anything she could have," the king assured, "She had gargoyles with her when she came here. Merida took them down single-handedly, but we're on Gothel's home land this time. We cannot expect them to fly away with such haste."

Merida entered the conference room through the back door, already having hid her new bow and quiver in the castle bedroom provided to her by the king.

"Hey Mer! You're back!" Rapunzel greeted her.

"I'm guessing we have a plan now?" she asked.

"We already got some of it figured out. Could we have some time alone?"

The king left with his servants and military advisors. Eugene stayed behind.

"We're gonna bring some help with us to fight off an army in case she throws one at us," Rapunzel continued, "As for fighting her I'm sure she'll try and block my magic again, which only takes away my hair. The thing I'm worried about is how much Gothel has figured out about my powers."

"Have you learned how to shoot light beams from your hands yet?"

"Whoa you can do that too?!" Eugene interjected.

"Actually, I have," Rapunzel gladly told them, "It's pretty much a muscle like everything else. I guess I needed a tough situation to discover it. Look, I've been digging around more, and I think I might know why Gothel couldn't stop me from doing it."

"So you believe me about having the sun in you?" Merida asked.

"Yeah. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rules about magic, but I think my hair comes from 'personal energy', which basically means it comes from within me. When I had my hair the first time that energy was the sun, but I lose it if my hair is cut. The only explanation is that ever since I was abducted I now have it in me all the time. I'm somehow absorbing sunlight like a plant, and it not only powers my hair but gives me all my other abilities along with it. That spell only blocked me from using magic, and I suppose everything else is more biological in nature. By the way, I had a surprise visit while you were gone."

"Who?"

"Anna, my cousin. She's a princess from a kingdom north of here called Arendelle. I don't how to say this, but she's got some power of her own and she knows Gothel is back. Oh and she used an alien spaceship to come down here."

"I told you she had powers," Eugene interrupted again.

"How?" Merida inquired.

"Beats me. I could hear her heart racing. She seemed pretty stressed out and only wanted to ask if we were doing okay. Apparently after some training, she knows she can see things before they happen, is superhumanly strong, fast, and agile, and has a bit of telekinesis. She also has a green beam sword that can cut through anything. She told me it was magic and just happened to find a working alien spaceship, but after everything I've learned I have trouble believing that."

"Guess we'll have to get her down here again to ask," Eugene suggested.

"Anyway, I told her we were doing just fine and she was okay with that. Now back to the plan. We still haven't completely decided on how to deal with Gothel directly, that's the tricky part."

"Well we don't know the full range of Gothel's magic, but if we need to we should be able to block her from using it like she did on you," Merida remarked, "We still don't know what she wants."

"Isn't it obvious now? She doesn't need my hair to live anymore but she wants revenge. She ran off when she saw my powers so she could prepare for me alone, which we'll have covered."

"What would satisfy her revenge? Killing you? By the way she attacked us here she wants more than that. If she wanted to kill you getting an entire army shouldn't be necessary. Let's face it: she probably wants to take over the kingdom, and getting you away from it would make sense after seeing your powers."

"She's kinda right ya know," Eugene seconded.

"Which is why we're only taking a portion of our army so we can still defend the place," Rapunzel followed.

"Could you convince you parents to put up some wards? It would make up for you being away at least," Merida reasoned.

"Guess we gotta get used to using some magic around here," Rapunzel sighed.

* * *

A day and a half later they had all agreed on a plan. Rapunzel would appear to enter the vicinity of the tower alone while the accompanying army would wait behind and strike when it became necessary. Merida would take a different route and use stealth tactics to help them out. Unbeknownst to everyone but Rapunzel, Merida carried her high-tech quiver and bow rather than her old one. They were hoping to have a bit of a surprise.

"In your positions," the general ordered everyone.

They all took various spots hiding behind trees and rocks, armed with crossbows and swords. Merida climbed to a high spot to gain a vantage point.

"Go ahead, your majesty."

Rapunzel strode out into the open, going right for the tower that housed her for eighteen straight years. Instead of climbing up through the entrance, she softly skipped towards the back and fired her hair towards the underside of the roof. With both hands holding on and her feet against the wall, she steadily shortened her hair and climbed up. She scoped out the tower for Gothel and didn't hear anything, so she climbed back down and gave a hand signal.

Right as she did, she saw a small red cloud vortex appear on the opposite side of the river. It then lowered itself to reveal Mother Gothel standing there, causing Corona's troops to quickly retreat back to their hiding spots.

"I guess I could have told you to come here alone, but what's the point. No one ever does," Gothel spoke.

She uttered a sorcerous phrase that called her gargoyle army in. Rapunzel shot her hair towards Gothel to try and stop her in the middle of it but it was magically repelled. Corona's troops came out of hiding and started firing at them with their crossbows.

"Oh no you don't!" Rapunzel yelled.

She tried to grab Gothel with hair again, which was again blocked and this time followed by a telekinetic flick backwards. She tumbled a few times before getting back up onto her feet. Having quickly recovered, she attempted a solar blast. That one connected and knocked Gothel backwards into a tree, so Rapunzel leaped high over the river for a closer position. Seeing Gothel caught off guard, she went for a knockout punch to try and end it early, but Gothel dodged and teleported away in the same fashion she arrived.

Gothel reappeared back on the other side of the river and unleashed a red lightning bolt from her palm in retaliation. It hit Rapunzel square in the chest, sending her seventy feet away.

"Yahh!"

The feeling of it was more like a small explosion rather than being struck by lightning. Rapunzel checked herself for a brief moment and only noticed minor burns. She picked herself up again and leaped onto the top of another tree. Gothel conjured and threw a ball of fire to inflame the tree Rapunzel was on. She had to jump off.

Now back on the ground, Rapunzel began moving so fast Gothel couldn't keep track of her. She rapidly cartwheeled, weaved, leaped, and whirled around evading various magical attacks awhile before she shot hair across the river. Pulling herself forward, she dove into a roll over to the other side right at Gothel. In one swift motion she grabbed Gothel as she sprang back up and flung her towards the canyon wall. She then lit her hands up for another solar blast. Mother Gothel had to be done.

* * *

Meanwhile, Merida made sure not to give away her position too soon. She opened things up firing off sleeping gas arrows to try and slow down the gargoyles amidst all the commotion below. Instead of aiming to hit, she instead hit the detonation button on the bow to spray the gas as the arrows traveled through the air past the flying creatures. Inhaling the gas meant they would subsequently tumble to the ground and be left easy pickings for Corona's army. It surely was too easy for her.

Gothel eventually noticed the mystery shooter that was Merida in the nick of time, so she sent some of the gargoyles on a circuitous route for a sneak attack seconds before Rapunzel executed the finishing combo. They shortly swarmed Merida from above and exploited her vulnerability in such a high and tight spot, snatching her to take her out of the picture. She was thrown through the front window of the tower.

"Merida!"

Rapunzel saw what happened, but had to stay on the ground. A dimensional portal suddenly opened up near the waterfall that let in a large, reptilian monster. Standing over half as tall as the tower, the giant lizard roared in hostility.

"Oh gosh."

"Take him down!" a soldier yelled.

Up in the tower, Merida hit a trip wire as she crashed in, causing a magical container of some sort to drop to the floor. It opened up to expel the Stabbinton Brothers.

"Well what a surprise," one of them pleasingly opened.

"I guess you were expecting the blonde and brunette one," Merida scoffed.

Merida first thought she was in trouble. The high tech in her bow and quiver couldn't get her out of close quarter situations. That wouldn't matter, as Merida got yet another flashback that would help her, though it only contained a short phrase.

_"Hand to hand combat training."_

Having dropped her bow, she blocked a punch from one of them to the outside and spun into a leg lock takedown by the head. She got up to engage the other one. He tried to grab her, but she sidestepped as she blocked with one arm, uppercut him with the other, and then finished him with a sweep of the legs.

"Not so tough after all, eh?"

But before Merida could leave, vines suddenly sprouted from beneath the floor and ensnared her. Gothel really did have a trap. _"I'm already getting tired of this," _she thought.

* * *

Back outside the soldiers were having trouble trying to take down the creature with the weapons they had. Their arrows could pierce his skin but couldn't hurt him enough to sufficiently slow him down.

As swords were drawn Rapunzel fired a high power solar blast, which again failed to hurt him much and barely made him flinch. The creature charged right back and went on to backhand away multiple numbers at once, including Rapunzel.

"Wahhh!"

Having only suffered superficial cuts and bruises, Rapunzel's durability was enough to allow her to get up after a few seconds. The giant lizard was ripping right through the soldiers, and she wanted to stop him for good. She wouldn't have time for that.

"Punz!"

Rapunzel could hear Merida's helplessness, so she ran towards the tower, jumped off the wall, and summoned her hair to swing in through the window. The creature noticed and charged after her. With little time, she immediately tossed both Stabbingtons away from Merida with her hair. However, she too would become trapped by the same vines.

"Oh great. Just great."

She couldn't break free before the tower was rammed into and separated it from its base. As her former home collapsed Rapunzel had no choice but to summon her hair to shield both herself and Merida. It wasn't enough to prevent them from getting knocked out.

* * *

**A/N: Yes there was a little tie-in to another story of mine and minor Star Wars reference going on. It takes place in the same universe.**


	8. Following Their Fate

Rapunzel and Merida woke up to find themselves flat on the ground in some kind of dungeon. It definitely wasn't Corona's. Gothel had to have kidnapped them while they were knocked out after the tower went down. They saw they were still wearing what they had on during their skirmish. Merida still had Clint's gear and was far from running out of arrows.

"Got any clue where we are?" Merida croaked.

Rapunzel opened up her super senses.

"Nope, but it's creepy. I hear voices, but as far as I can tell we're as good as being in the middle of nowhere. I also smell a little blood."

"Blood?"

"I don't wanna find out. Let's just get outta here."

Rapunzel got up and went right for the bars. As soon as she touched the metal, she was magically blown backwards.

"What was _that_?" Rapunzel blurted.

Gothel promptly appeared in a vortex of red clouds right outside their dungeon cell.

"You're not going anywhere, darling. I have some…plans, and I would prefer both of you stay out of my way if you're not with me."

"Like what?"

Gothel let out a chuckle. "Ever since I was brought back I've realized using someone just to live forever wasn't practical. Now I think I can get something better, one that will grant me a wish for permanent life. Legend has called it the Nexus of Wonder, a great power that lies in the very center of the planet. I tried to take over your kingdom so I could start acquiring the resources to get it, but seeing what you can do I've decided to find another way. And I have found the place to start, right in the very establishment we are in.

"I will give you a choice, Rapunzel. Join me, and together with this power we will rid the land of all death and suffering. Together, we will bring order and end our little conflict."

"I'll never join you!"

"You're out of your mind!" Merida added.

"Well, then," Gothel answered, "If both of you still want to make me the bad guy, I guess I'll have to leave both of you here to rot for a very, very long time." She teleported out with those being her only words.

"Ughhh!"

"Calm down, Punz. We'll get ourselves a way out of here."

"Like how? You can't even touch the bars without getting an explosion to the face."

"At least we know what she wants now."

Rapunzel turned back to face Merida. "How you holding up?"

"Just a little hurt."

"I could heal you at least."

"Sure."

Rapunzel summoned her hair and softly wrapped it around Merida to heal everything she sustained from the tower collapse.

"Wisps!" Merida shot up.

As soon as she healed Merida, Rapunzel turned around to see floating little blue critters right outside the bars.

"Those were the things you were talking about?"

Several of them merged together and went right into the door's locks, magically opening it up and removing the enchantment.

"Well I guess we can leave now," Rapunzel relieved in a sing-song tone.

"We've got to follow them," Merida insisted.

"Mer!"

Rapunzel chased after Merida and followed the Wisps down the dimly lit dungeon corridors.

"How do you know they'll get us a safe way out?" Rapunzel questioned as she ran along.

"They never led me wrong before."

They were taken up a hidden staircase up to a second floor hall. They were not stopped until they stepped out onto an outdoor balcony.

"Wow."

The castle turned out to be located in a major coastal city, one that was many times larger than Corona. They were unfortunately only given a few moments to gaze at the night skyline in awe before two small dragons showed up and landed right next to them.

Rapunzel and Merida jolted backwards. The dragons surrendered and put their hands up. They then lowered back down and gave an affectionate look as the Wisps surrounded them.

"I think we're supposed to get on," Merida encouraged.

"Seriously?"

"They obviously don't want to hurt us. Do you want to get out of here or not?"

Neither of them knew what to make of the dragons. Both had blue and white scales, sharp teeth, spikey horns, and yellowish wings. Their outward appearance was intimidating, yet they displayed a sweet and calm demeanor, unlike the large one Merida faced all those years ago.

As soon as they were securely on the dragons' backs, they took off.

"Whoaaa!"

The creatures assuredly had a lot of thrust as they jumped off and flapped their wings to gain high altitude and reach very high speeds within a few seconds. Their passengers held on like scared children and put their heads down as they were subjected to massive g-forces at first. The intense feeling went down after they reached the clouds and leveled off.

"I'm actually liking this," Rapunzel admitted.

"Me too."

"Where do ya think they're taking us?"

"Somewhere important I hope."

* * *

The trip would last about an hour before they dived back down and softly touched down in a familiar forest.

"I recognize this place," Merida realized.

"No kidding. Those Wisps are for real."

"This forest, I know it by heart. It hasn't changed even after all this time."

"Well if that's the case, think your kingdom's still here?"

"I guess we're here to find out."

Merida led Rapunzel on the same path she would use to reach her kingdom. It wasn't a journey Merida hadn't seen before, until she came across a road.

"I'm guessing that wasn't here three centuries ago," Rapunzel noted.

Merida paused as she took in the experience of seeing something so major to her.

"Oy!"

Their silence was broken by an elderly man in a decelerating carriage.

"You two ladies lost?" he asked through the door window.

"Errrrr…yeah. You could say that," Merida replied, "Is there a place near here called DunBroch?"

"DunBroch? Why it's a major one! Why don't you both hop on? I'm going there myself."

"O-kay," Rapunzel hesitated.

The man opened the carriage door and welcomed them in.

"Hyahh!"

The carriage went back to moving again.

"So, what brings you two out here?" he asked.

Merida gave Rapunzel a little jerk. "We're uhhh…not really too sure. You're probably not gonna believe me if I told you."

"Ah don't worry about telling me. This land has seen plenty of supernatural things, sometimes good, sometimes bad."

They entered DunBroch sooner than expected, implying that it had grown much since Merida was gone. It was marked by a sign that read: "_Now Entering the Village and Kingdom of DunBroch"_.

"I'll let you two stay the night at a place I own here. You both look like you've had enough for the day."

* * *

"Great heavens! Is that who I think it is?!"

Rapunzel and Merida had to have gone unnoticed the entire night, because when they were out and about the next day, quite a few people in the village gave shocked looks. At some point, the kingdom's middle-aged ruler herself came out to see what the fuss was all about. Her mouth dropped as soon as she saw Merida.

"It can't be!" she uttered.

"Whoa whoa. Does everyone here know you?" Rapunzel gasped.

"Sure looks like it," Merida answered. She walked towards the queen. "If I am some kind of historical figure around here I can explain."

"What sorcery is this? Guards!"

A small group of royal guards came forward. One of them was armed with a magical item of some sort.

"Test her," the queen ordered him.

He placed his talisman in Merida's hand but nothing happened.

"Oh my. It's really you."

"In the flesh," Merida further declared.

"Come with me, both of you. You can explain everything when we get inside."

Merida handed the testing device back. The guards lowered their weapons and escorted the two into the castle with the queen. It certainly was a different castle than the one Merida knew and quite a sight to see. Right in the middle of a comparably modern village, part of the old castle stayed as a historical monument while the new one had been built and retrofitted right into it. The new castle was also unsurprisingly on par with Corona's, architecturally distinguishing itself from the old one in a multitude of ways.

They entered the castle and sat down at a round table to begin their conversation.

"So I'm obviously a big name around here. What am I famous for?" Merida began.

"Merida, you became one of the most influential people in the kingdom's history," the queen responded, "You must think it wasn't all that great of a deal back in your day, but past your effective demise DunBroch became a beacon of bravery and change. What you did was an immense act of sacrifice that none have matched since. Furthermore, you were one of the biggest reasons why we altered tradition not only for the sake of the kingdom's survival, but for the better. Some even go as far to say that you started a legacy of enlightenment. I know this must all be alarming for you to hear. Could you explain how you are sitting in front of me right now, in this very room?"

"That's a really complicated story we don't expect you to believe," Rapunzel interrupted.

"You can tell me. We've been used to a lot of magic and other unordinary things around here."

"It's not like that," Merida began, "I never really died. I survived being burned by that dragon. What happened after that though…"

Merida sighed. This was going to be a long one.

* * *

**_Over three centuries ago…_**

"You're not big enough, boy."

"But I want to fight! I have the experience!"

Merida could hear much shouting and arguing on the castle green. Both her parents were away discussing other important matters, and war was imminent.

"When was the last time you were on my side woman?!"

She had no choice but to try and calm everyone down. She was the only royalty out there, even though it was hard for others to think of her as a princess.

"Everyone will you please stop!" she yelled. Nothing happened. The people kept bickering until her loud words finally got them to pay attention and turn towards her. "Finally," she sighed.

"What good are we doing if we keep fighting among ourselves?" she continued, "You may have your differences, but we won't stand a chance against Monseri unless we come together. We already know of the terrible slaughter and destruction he and his armies have brought upon millions. Entire kingdoms, knowledge, and achievements have been destroyed and forgotten. Lives and families, lost. That will be our fate unless we choose to avenge their lives and fight as one. Look, I have been getting everyone here training just for this. We cannot afford to let all that mean nothing.

"Monseri wants nothing but conquest at any cost. He doesn't care who you are, so why should we? It doesn't matter if you are a woman, or even if you're an undersized man. Everyone gathered here can fight, and I see the bravery grow in all of you every day. Look at me. Did you ever think a princess would become what you see before you now?"

She paused to let everyone take that in.

"I changed fate once before and prevented a war from starting between you. And now I'm asking you to help me change it again. This kingdom has joined together before, and newcomers to the battlefield should not change that one bit. Fight for each other, for your families, for this kingdom. For DunBroch!"

"For DunBroch!"

Everyone there cheered and rejoiced after listening to what Merida had to say.

* * *

"So Merida, you did it?" Elinor asked.

"Yes, mum. Everyone is agreeing to fight."

"I knew you could," Fergus reassured.

"We still have a problem. I have word that our invaders will be bringing some magic with them," Elinor alerted them.

"Magic? In what form?"

"Creatures. Some far worse than Mor'du."

Merida sighed. "There's only one person here I know who can help us, and I don't know if she'll even be there when I go looking for her."

Right as she said that, Wisps entered the room where they were having their conversation in a speak-of-the-devil fashion. Merida went after them.

"Merida!" Elinor called out to her.

"That's how I found the witch last time! Maybe that's what this is!"

* * *

"Come on, Angus! Faster!"

The Wisps moved quickly enough to make Merida ride Angus. Whatever was their purpose this time, it had to be urgent. Eventually, the Wisps slowed down, and Angus screeched to a halt.

As she hoped, she was led directly to the witch's cottage. She had to be in business. Merida unsaddled and ran to her door to knock.

"Hello dear. What can I help you with today?" she greeted Merida.

"Our kingdom is facing an invasion. It won't be here unless you agree to help us."

"And why would I want to help you?"

"I know our enemies have magical creatures with them."

"Ah yes. You would know much about that. Well unfortunately there can be many different varieties of them and they can have very specific weaknesses. You can kill most the conventional way. Others will require much more. However, being me I have a very deep knowledge. I might be able to concoct a poison that can take down even the strongest of ones. No charge, by the way. It is a war after all and I want my business to stay here."

"Why thank you!"

"I must warn you though, I may only have enough just for you."

Merida sighed. If DunBroch was to face anything supernatural that couldn't easily be killed, she would have to go at it alone. "Just do it."


	9. Meeting The Abductors

**A/N: I've been busy lately. Still intend on finishing this though...**

* * *

**_Back to the present time…_**

"I barely remember the whole thing, but that's how it happened," Merida finished.

"Aliens? Oh my. Those stories about unidentified flying objects really are true," the queen realized, "I guess anyone would have believed it was magic."

"That's what I would've thought first, but now I'm pretty sure most of my powers aren't, at least everything besides the hair," Rapunzel chimed in.

"I am completely and utterly baffled."

"You're baffled?" Merida rhetorically asked, "I still don't know why the Wisps brought us back here, and we were brought here really, really fast. I guess it was our fate to let you know all this."

Familiarly, the Wisps came into the room as they were having a conversation about them.

"Or it could be more than that. Come on!" Merida hurried Rapunzel.

Rapunzel reluctantly got up out of her seat and chased after Merida out of the round table room.

"Your majesty, it was…uh…great meeting you," Rapunzel got out as she ran away.

"No problem. You're welcome to talk anytime if I'm not busy," the queen said.

The two of them left and went right for the stables. "_Here we go again_," Merida thought.

That was an understatement. By the time they left the kingdom entrance Merida unquestionably realized where they were taking her.

* * *

"I did not expect this," Merida remarked as she unsaddled.

"Expect what?"

"This is the witch's cottage, that witch I told you about that turned my mum into a bear. I can't believe it's actually still here."

It indeed looked so. The door remained unchanged if not an exact carbon copy. But that surprise would be dwarfed by who they would see next.

"I've been expecting you," the witch greeted as she came out her door.

Merida drew an arrow.

"Is that her? How-"

"I'm not here to hurt you," the witch interrupted Rapunzel, "I can explain everything. I just want to figure out why I've been led to this time in this land."

"Time?" Merida inquired.

"I'm a time traveler. Please I'm not an overboard immortal like that Gothel lady," she grinned.

"You know her?" Rapunzel questioned.

Merida lowered her weapon and put the arrow back into her quiver. "So what really is your deal?"

The witch sat down on a log sighing and magically conjured two seats for her audience.

"The name's Maisie, just so you know. I actually come from a world much different from this one. Right here…"

Maisie pulled out a crystal ball that showed an example of what everyday life was like for her in her home land, or rather her home city. Rapunzel observed the tall buildings, motorized vehicles, and various trains that comprised of it, almost believing she was a member of the alien race that abducted her.

"When I was a little girl I met strange creatures who could talk. At first I thought monsters would come out of my bedroom closet to scare me at night but then I realized there was much, much more to it than that. The ones I met were actually pretty nice guys, and I pretty much fell in love with them a little too much. They called me 'boo'. You see, they actually had an entire world of their own, separate from mine and accessed through closet doors. You could see your things in your closet one moment and the next you have a portal to their land after you've opened up the door again."

Merida was starting to get it. She remembered seeing everything changing in the cottage with a finger snap while the door was closed.

"They kept visiting me, but I wanted to visit them. And ever since then I dabbled into magic. Eventually I unlocked the secret, and found out it wasn't so magical after all."

Those words struck a chord in Rapunzel.

"Their technology allows them to travel through all time and space, and they didn't even know it. I began replicating it under the disguise of my illusions and out of curiosity I traveled through many times and many lands. That's how I ended up here. As for the reason we're talking right now-"

"Well our fate has brought us here," Merida interrupted, "There has to be a reason."

"I'm just glad those Wisps got us out of that prison," Rapunzel added.

"I was getting to that," Maisie continued, "I found out a lot about you two through that crystal ball after I ended up here, so sent those dragons to rescue you. I guess I'm here to tell you some things about me.

"I met Gothel before I met you. She had a family and wanted to take care of them the best she could. When times got really tough she dove into dark magic and never quit. Doing it long enough will turn you insane and that's what happened to her. After skipping a few years before coming back here, she came to me asking how to achieve eternal life. I only told her to find it the same way she found me. And apparently those Wisps led her right to it, right to that infamous flower. I still feel it was partly my fault to this day.

"You won't believe where I got those dragons, by the way. I actually traveled to a different universe entirely and went to an island called Berk. That place in particular had plenty of those. I found other worlds there, mind you. Like there's one in which Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are real. Don't even ask."

"Wow," Rapunzel gasped.

"I probably won't be going to parallel universes anytime soon. It can get really weird and I'm afraid I'll screw up the balance if you believe that sort of thing."

"Why would Gothel going insane be your fault?" Merida wondered.

"I introduced her to magic from the start. I never thought anyone could get so desperate-"

Their conversation was interrupted by a whirring noise that was nearly identical to the one coming from the alien spacecraft that abducted Rapunzel. Indeed, a ship was promptly seen landing and turning its power off a couple yards beyond the other side of cottage.

"Well this is interesting," Maisie remarked as they approached it.

The hatch opened to reveal Rapunzel's abductors setting foot on their planet. Some members of the group looked very human. Others were humanoids that had blue skin. One of the blue skinned ones identified himself as their leader, who Rapunzel recognized as Yondu. She couldn't believe it. Whatever their reason for coming back, it had to be important somehow.

"I'm only here cause this guy's got a deal with me. I'll let ya talk to him but we got limited time," Yondu greeted them.

The man that administered the modified Super Soldier Serum to Merida was escorted forward. He had the humble appearance of a late middle-aged guy with long, grayish hair and a moderate beard.

"We'll be waitin' back at our ship. You can go have a private chat with 'em."

"Come with me," were his first words.

"What's-"

"I know these guys," Rapunzel cut Merida off, "It's okay."

They went back to the other side of the cottage. Maisie remained quiet.

"I do not have much time, so I will say what I can. First of all, this is not my true appearance. A very powerful mage disguised me so those pirates back there wouldn't know who I really am. My name is Adam Warlock. I have much to explain to you two. I knew you would want to travel back here eventually so I convinced them to bring the ship back to this planet. Did you receive Clint's message?"

"Errrrrr…yeah," Merida replied, "What's going on?"

"I gave you a memory wipe when our previous ship came under attack in the case of your capture, but that luckily did not come to pass. You would have been unable to reveal the existence of your planet in its entirety, and that is a secret I protect with my life."

"What's so special about us?" Rapunzel asked.

"The planet you know as Earth is actually one of many that go by that name. It is rumored that our universe's supreme being gave birth to multiple copies of the same worlds in order to maintain the balance. Doing so would fool even the smartest and most knowledgeable beings, since they are almost identical to one another in geography and life forms. This allows power to grow rather secretively. Your planet in particular is very well hidden and exceptionally strong in magic. I reckon knowledge of it should never fall to the wrong hands. I would not have found this place if it weren't for something else that led me here. It took the appearance of floating blue lights."

"The Wisps!" Merida exclaimed.

"What you know as the Will O' The Wisps is actually just a manifestation of one singular entity that helps guide and shape events here. It can do anything from leading people down certain paths to causing small scale phenomena in order to achieve an overall desired outcome.

"Before I could not find Merida's planet of origin but I insisted she be returned. Your system did not show up on the ship's readings until they came along. I realized what was happening and allowed myself to be guided by them. With a second Infinity Stone I traveled from a galaxy far, far away to here and found you."

"What are the Infinity Stones?" Rapunzel finally asked.

"The Infinity Stones are six cosmic-level artifacts that each controls a different aspect of the universe. They can only be wielding by beings of sufficient power or else they would destroy a lesser being on contact. I obtained possession of the Power Stone while I already had another stone, the Soul Stone. Likewise, I wanted to see if I could successfully use it. When I came here and read your soul I knew I came across a perfect candidate. With the combination of two stones I unleashed a wave of cosmic energy, intending you to be able to have your hair whenever you wanted. I must apologize for kidnapping and experimenting on you. Even I do not quite understand what happened I obtained the results I wanted. It seems you went through it unharmed and I hope you are handling yourself well."

"Oh I'm actually doing fine. It took some time getting used to but I've done a lot since then."

"I'd like to hear."

Rapunzel sighed and gave a worried look. "Well besides beating up thugs twice my size I've…come across an old enemy."

"Gothel? I looked into your soul. I thought she died."

"Well basically she's insane and wants eternal life. She used me for the first eighteen years of my life to retain her youth. Now she's been brought back by magical means and wants to get another way to do it. Apparently there's this thing called the Nexus of Wonder in the center of the planet that could give her that."

Adam's mouth dropped.

"What's wrong?" Merida asked. Rapunzel could smell his perspiration and could hear his heartbeat rising.

"That is not just some power that can grant eternal life. It is much more than that. It allows complete control and alteration of reality on a scale far above that of a planet or galaxy."

"What are you talking about? How do you know this?" Merida worryingly asked.

"It is an Infinity Stone."


	10. Expanded Enemies

"What?!" they both gasped.

"Merida, Rapunzel. You must stop Gothel by all means necessary. The Reality Stone is a dangerous power that she cannot even begin to fathom."

"Stay here. Help us stop her," Rapunzel pleaded.

"I must leave and unfortunately cannot help you. Revealing my identity here would make things worse and would pass knowledge of the Reality Stone into the wrong hands. However, what you should know is this. The Reality Stone was recently placed in the center of a hidden planet and its inhabitants were given false stories to hide its true nature. Now I know this is that planet.

"It has been removed a few times but I have learned it has been recently returned. Expect Gothel to seek out a hole into the Earth, preferably a volcano, to perform a ritual in order to draw it out and take it into herself. Infinity Stones do not necessarily take the appearance of stones and can take other forms. The Space Stone for example is actually a cube. I am unsure how Gothel will handle its power given her magical nature, but it will very likely cause some chaos as soon as she comes in contact with it."

"How will we even hope to find her?" Merida asked.

"I have a way," Maisie confidently declared.

"I'm not surprised."

"I trust you know what you are doing. Good luck," Adam finished.

"Wait!"

As he rushed back to the landed spacecraft to leave Maisie took Rapunzel and Merida into her cottage.

"Luckily I've known her long enough to have the means of finding her," Maisie remarked. She searched through a little before finally coming across a possession of Gothel's in a drawer. "Ah-ha! Found it." The witch quickly worked her magic to obtain Gothel's location on her crystal ball. "There we go. It looks like she'll be performing a ritual on the summit of Mount Cambini to take in the Nexus. It is a small volcano just along the Mediterranean coastline. I should have a map of my own here somewhere."

"Who are those people she's talking to?" Rapunzel asked. She could see Gothel had made new friends.

"I don't-"

The silence of the surrounding forest was broken again, but this time by hostile forces.

"What's going on?"

The three of them quietly sneaked outside and quickly realized something nefarious was going on. It was early afternoon but the sky had gone to a complete nighttime state. The mysterious people passing by looked to be affiliated with the people Gothel was seen talking to. Of all the times Maisie had been there, she had never heard such a large group of horses going by. Her cottage was secluded enough that the only disturbances of that kind happened during times of war.

"I'm not liking that smell. Sure isn't normal," Rapunzel worried.

"And their heading…right for DunBroch," Merida tacked on, "Can we use those dragons again?"

Maisie snapped her fingers to call forth the dragons that had brought Rapunzel and Merida to DunBroch to begin with.

"Do what you have to do," she told them.

* * *

Everyone came out of their homes and businesses as they saw the sky turn black. Then they shortly witnessed the shocking fashion in which Rapunzel and Merida arrived. Rapunzel could sense their tension rise to same level she was feeling. Some of them even accused Merida of bringing a threat with her.

"We have to see the queen, immediately! We've got company coming from where we came," Merida told the guard.

"It might be a little late for that," he replied.

They turned around and saw the same hooded men and women they saw outside of Maisie's cottage arrive on the main street. Merida grabbed Rapunzel and hid, seeing that they did not want to draw even more attention. After running for a bit, Rapunzel leaped for a roof and helped Merida up with her hair, a kind of location that had become a favorite between the two.

The queen was promptly alerted and came outside. She saw the group's main leader unsaddle and remove his hood.

"Be on the ready," she told her guards, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Their leader was a man of average height with pale skin and moderate length blonde hair. He displayed a neutral facial expression as he approached.

"Who are you and why have you come here to the kingdom of DunBroch?" the queen greeted him.

"My name is Andrei Ducard. We only ask the young lady known as Merida DunBroch to come willingly, and no one shall be harmed."

The queen didn't know how to react. _"What could Merida have possibly done to make her wanted?"_ she thought, _"Should I reveal my knowledge of her still being alive?"_

"Merida DunBroch is a renowned historical figure 'round these parts," she responded, "She lived centuries ago. I do not know what you are talking about."

"Liar!" the man shouted as he further approached her, "Where is she?!"

"I don't know!"

He took a few seconds. "She doesn't know where she is, but she's here." He gave a nod. "If anyone here knows of Merida's location, please step forward."

No one knew. Merida had stealthily sneaked away with Rapunzel without anyone seeing.

"Anyone?"

Nearly everyone in his vicinity began pulling out various weapons not limited to swords and crossbows, feeling the threatening nature of the situation. Some even had guns. DunBroch's warrior culture had lived on even in times of industrialization. Every one of its citizens was prepared for a fight if they ever needed to defend themselves.

"Very well. Have it your way."

Suddenly, the hooded men and women attacked at phenomenal speeds. While the lead man steadily paced himself down the street with three henchmen, the others moved in a near blur, too fast for any of the commoners to react. Their weapons were useless. Merida drew an arrow.

"Wait," Rapunzel whispered as Merida loosened her grip. Rapunzel used her superhuman eyesight to gain a closer look. Everyone that had been attacked was left knocked out. Some of them she could see had a little blood dripping from their necks.

"I smell something," Rapunzel heard Ducard saying, "It is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my nearly eight hundred years of existence. It is very strong..."

It was all starting to come together. The blood Rapunzel detected from the dungeon, the blood dripping from their victim's necks, their pale appearance, their sense of smell, their longevity, and their fast movement speeds only meant one thing. They were vampires.

"I smell it too," one of his henchmen remarked.

They surely detected the scent radiating from Rapunzel. She figured her powers would give off a unique scent. But her senses allowed her to detect their distinct nature as well. She knew what she was up against.

"OK just do it," Rapunzel ordered Merida.

Merida pulled her arm back and released her fingers to fire the arrow. It cut straight through the air uninterrupted until Ducard caught it within inches of his face.

"There she is!" Ducard shouted.

"Uh-oh," Merida gulped. Not knowing what to do she looked to her side, but Rapunzel had disappeared.

"Hey jerk face!" Rapunzel interrupted him.

She had already leaped off the roof and summoned her hair to swing around towards the street. As she catapulted herself over she took aim, landing a kick right to his face before dropping to the ground flat on her feet. The surprise attack incited one of his henchmen to charge at Rapunzel in the same fashion the others were attacking. But she was unlike any human he had ever faced. Her heightened speeds allow her to gracefully sidestep and avoid his attack. Befuddled, he turned around only to get a high power solar blast right to the chest, enough to dust him and burn the other two a bit. Rapunzel then used her hair to send the other two flying.

"Too easy!"

Unfortunately, things weren't going quite as well for Merida. She wished she had kept the conventional wooden arrows. The vamps were quickly closing in on her building and began climbing up with their extended claws. She shot some of them down, but could only do so much before one of them reached the top. The only option she had was to run, and she sure did. The Super Soldier treatment allowed her to leap across to other rooftops and eventually back down. Having gained some breathing room, she fired off multiple electric and explosive arrows. She was fast enough to get them off despite their movement speeds. It proved to be an effective tactic, but they just kept coming.

Meanwhile, Rapunzel sprang herself into the air and shot her hair at a building to swing, landing herself directly in the middle of the commotion.

"Watch out!" she sarcastically yelled.

In the blink of an eye, her brunette hair glowed and turned blonde, separating into four groups of strands to grab and throw away one each like ragdolls.

"Hurahh!"

The move allowed several commoners to get away. Some of the attackers stopped what they were doing to focus their attention on Rapunzel. But she already knew how it would go down. Their uncoordinated attacks allowed her to evade them with ease. Jumping, spinning, cartwheeling, and flowing in and out of the crowd at blurring speeds of her own left her untouched, allowing her plenty of opportunities to finish them off. She felt like she could do it all day (or rather all night).

"She's been spotted. Let's go!"

They were effectively ordered to break off and sprint away.

"Merida," Rapunzel whispered.

Rapunzel darted off after them. She hoped Merida wasn't far. Her superhuman speeds unfortunately weren't as pronounced over long distances. If Merida was close enough, their vast speed advantage wouldn't mean much. Rapunzel still had quite a bit herself, running fast enough to completely mess up her hairdo in its short brunette state. She luckily didn't reach there too late.

"You guys haven't forgot about me, have you?" she interrupted again.

With her hair she grappled and tossed multiple numbers into the air and dusted them with solar blasts.

"Are you okay?"

Rapunzel approached Merida and saw she was nearly unconscious with a bite mark on the side of her neck. She summoned and softly wrapped her hair around Merida's neck to heal it.

"What happened?" Merida asked as she awoke.

"Looks like I came here-"

"Watch out!"

Merida alerted Rapunzel to Ducard approaching her from behind. She promptly turned around and threw a good solid punch to his neck. He caught her fist with his bare hand.

"Impressive," he softly mocked.

He threw a punch of his own right to Rapunzel's opposite cheek, sending her flying well over seventy feet away.

Seeing he was distracted for a brief moment, Merida took advantage and fired an arrow just as he struck Rapunzel. It plunged right into the left side of his chest. He pulled it out with a chuckle.

"Are you serious? I'm-"

Suddenly, the arrow exploded in his face and knocked him flat onto his back. As Ducard got himself back up, Merida charged at him and went all out, aggressively dishing out physical blows nonstop while his face was still healing. None of them were enough to significantly hurt him. Soon he fully recovered from the blast and casually backhanded Merida thirty feet away. He grinned as he heard a reassuring yelp.

"Foolish girl. You shall pay for your insolence," he said ominously.

He was going to kill her. Rapunzel knew it as she saw Merida lying helplessly on the ground. Right as she saw Ducard approaching, she shot her hair towards him and made it wrap around both his arms.

"Not today!"

Rapunzel rapidly decreased her hair's length to pull him towards her and then made it vanish, reverting it back to its brunette state so she could kick him in the head.

"Urahhh!"

She ran after him as the impact sent him soaring the other way. She knew the lore. She read every book in the castle library on vampires. He was clearly much older than his underlings and his healing factor was much higher than the others. She wanted to keep hitting him as hard as she could until she got the chance to finish him. That turned out to be easier said than done.

Ducard was giving Rapunzel the most trouble she would have yet. With the speed and reflexes to match her, it was as if he knew what she was going to do before she even did it at times. Even as she increased her striking rate, his defense remained staunch, blocking almost every one. The strikes that did land he quickly recovered from. It wasn't long before he caught one of her moves again and subdued her.

"Ugh! Let go of me!" she struggled.

"You're not going anywhere, blondie. I have something special planned for you."

"My liege!" one of his men interrupted him, "We have to go. The spell will end soon."

Ducard sighed with a displeasing look on his face as he released Rapunzel.

"You have no idea how lucky you both are."


	11. Plans Revealed

"You imbeciles!" Gothel scolded Ducard and his men, "I thought I was very clear about Rapunzel!"

"We didn't know she could kill us _that_ easily," Ducard replied.

Gothel sighed and sat down. She had taken effort to gain allies. She took the effort gather them in a castle home to secret activities just to discuss her plans. She had already gone through the trouble to cast a blocking spell over DunBroch from hundreds of miles away. She created a portal just for them to go there and recapture Merida and Rapunzel. She thought she had given Ducard a sufficient scouting report on both of them. Then she realized it.

"How could I have not seen this? I always knew she was strong, but her power, she gets it from…from-"

"From what?"

"The sun! That flower grew from a drop of sunlight! Now she somehow has it back, even after that thief cut her hair. I should have known that's what she was doing all this time. We need a new plan."

"Will we still be able to perform the extraction ritual?"

"Absolutely. I haven't told anyone where we will do it and it is unlikely they will interfere. However, I'd rather not run that risk. All I need you and your friends to do is protect me. I will be severely weakened while performing the ritual and vulnerable to attack by even a normal person."

"What should we do about your 'daughter' and the archer?"

"Well why don't we look at what you did right, shall we? You had her beaten. She couldn't stand up to your mental abilities no matter how fast she moved. I assure you; I knew she was no match for you."

"Why don't you take on her yourself?"

"Ah yes, well I did, and both times I failed miserably. Despite trapping her the second time I never actually beat her in a fair fight. You see both of us have quite some power but glaring weaknesses, if you will. My magic is very strong, but I'm limited by how quickly I can make it happen in the short term. Likewise, Rapunzel is extraordinarily fast, but if you can keep up with her, you'll realize how predictable she is, an area that is your specialty."

Ducard responded with a sinister smile.

"The deal is still on," Gothel continued, "I have gained all the allies I have ever wanted just to regain my immortality. With your help, I can give you and the rest of the friends what you want. With someone of my power you have the perfect opportunity to gain your revenge. No more will you be restricted by the rotation of the Earth. No more will you hide in obscurity and cower in fear of human ruled kingdoms and nations. You shall gain the position you've always wanted in the world. And if _those two_ show up again…well…you know what to do."

* * *

"Rapunzel, please," Merida pleaded, "Talk to me."

"I just don't know what to do," she said in a muffled voice.

Rapunzel remained behind the door in her temporary room. She was scared for her life. She didn't want to know what Ducard would have done to her should he have continued.

"Look, I know how you feel. But if you get up now, we can at least find out who that guy was. If we're to have any chance of getting out of this, we can at least know what we're up against."

She still didn't want to come out. After a few moments of waiting, Merida figured she needed some time. She decided to go for the castle alone, hoping to gather some useful information.

As she walked out the old man's home and down the main street she was given even more attention than she got when she first returned, receiving applause for both her and Rapunzel's heroic efforts. Unfortunately she wasn't as in a cheerful mood. She, like Rapunzel, knew the situation at hand very well.

"Could I help you, Princess Merida," the castle guard greeted her.

"Yeah, you wouldn't happen to have a library here, would ya? Was hoping to find some things on those guys that came here 'last night'."

The guard let Merida in and led her right to the library. It would have been nice to have Rapunzel with her, but it wasn't necessary. She knew full well what Rapunzel was capable of, even if she had trouble wrapping her head around it. In the relatively short time knowing her, Merida witnessed the strength to uproot trees with her bare hands, the durability to survive being telekinetically thrown to the ground from a few stories up, the kinds of speeds that are too fast to be tracked by the naked eye, and magical hair. She thought she had gone through quite the experience with extraterrestrials, centuries-long suspended animation, and a serum that pushed her well beyond the finest human warriors, but Rapunzel was on an entirely new level.

"Vampires, vampires, anything on vampires."

Like Corona, the new DunBroch wasn't a stranger to the world of magic and the supernatural. She tore through the shelves, pulling out and checking every book that was remotely related. She would find information on them soon enough.

"I_t is generally agreed that any species of vampire possesses innate abilities to lure their prey-_"

"Merida?"

Merida broke her reading and turned towards the door to see Rapunzel standing at its entrance.

"I kinda realized I shouldn't have been so hard on myself getting beat up by him," Rapunzel admitted, "You got anything yet?"

"Just looking through stuff in here on vampires," Merida replied.

"Well, see if you can find any psychic abilities or something like that. It was like Ducard knew what I was gonna do move for move before I even did it."

"Errrr…actually…yeah, I got something here. Apparently vampires are commonly seen displaying feats of hypnosis or weak mind control, but the oldest are much stronger in that area, able to invade minds and dominate the wills of several at once. Not seeing anything specifically on precognition, but after reading this it doesn't seem out of the question to get close to it."

"Oh great. How am I supposed to beat a guy like that?"

"Look, maybe it isn't all what you think it is. For someone like that, I still got an arrow into his chest. Perhaps he has to put all his focus on one opponent for it to work, especially someone as fast as you. That gives me an idea."

"You wanna take him together?"

"As long as he thinks he's fighting you alone I can catch him off guard. Now about the Nexus of Wonder."

"We heard something about a ritual. Wouldn't there be some things needed to make it happen?"

"Well that Warlock guy said people were given false stories to hide its true nature, so there's probably some lore sitting around here at least. Mind helping me look?"

"Sure…"

They both went through further and further through the information that was there, nearly emptying three-quarters of the bookshelves before finally finding it.

"Yep, that's it," Rapunzel alerted Merida, "Nexus of Wonder…an extremely powerful artifact that is believed to grant an infinite number of wishes to the wielder and lies at the center of the planet. Highly coveted, even more so than genies, since there are none of the usual restrictions associated with them. However, the immense power of it is thought to be very dangerous, too much for a normal person to handle."

"Anything on getting it out?"

Rapunzel flipped a few pages. "Getting there…ummm. The Nexus of Wonder can be drawn out by an extensive ritual. Doing so would require the ultimate price, whatever that means. Oh and also the very act of starting it will cause massive earthquakes in the area and could even create volcanic fissures. My god."

"So we just have to know when exactly Gothel will do it and stop her. If only it was that-"

Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of several white colored orbs that whirled around for a bit before settling at one spot. They then went away to reveal Maisie standing in the same room as they were.

"Boo!"

"Whoa!" both Rapunzel and Merida exclaimed as they fell back into their seats.

"Sorry, I just love seeing everyone's reactions when I do that. Anyway, I've been using my little crystal ball and I thought I could give you two some more useful information."

Merida and Rapunzel pulled themselves up.

"What would that be?" Merida asked.

"Well apparently, paying the ultimate price for Gothel would mean giving up something she treasures the most. But that's not the whole story. She also needs flesh from that which does not live, yet still moves, among some other things. That's likely why she aligned herself with 'those guys'."

"And probably why she got Ducard," Rapunzel added, "She needed someone who could give me a real fight."

"Anyway, we need another plan here," Merida continued, "We need to stop her from finishing the whole thing altogether. She already told us what she's after, so let's expect we'll be expected. I'll get myself some conventional wooden arrows to take down her minions, but their leader is the real issue. We know he can predict his opponent's moves but he can get distracted. You would still need to be able to get him in a position to allow me to take him out, and I'll have some difficulty keeping up with both your combat speeds."

"I could have something for that," Maisie butt in.

"Seriously?" Rapunzel hopefully asked.

"Well, this Ducard relies on the predictability of his opponents and invading minds to win, right? What if I cast a spell on you to make you unpredictable? One that makes you more prone to rage and primal instincts. He wouldn't even want to think about invading your mind once he realizes that."


	12. Flying Monkeys

Mother Gothel and her recently acquired minions stood at the base of the small, island volcano known as Mount Cambini, setting their gaze towards the adjacent, eponymous city that sat at the shoreline about a half mile away.

"I hope us gathering here won't draw too much attention," she said to one of Ducard's men, "It's going to be quite a lot for a relatively tiny island, you know."

"We made sure the guards kept their attention elsewhere," he responded, "By the time we start this quiet little city will be too asleep to even notice."

Everyone in the area was interrupted by the entrance of Ducard. He strolled towards Gothel with a calm and cautiously satisfied demeanor.

"Are you absolutely sure the two young ladies won't find us here?" Ducard asked.

"Them? Oh sure they won't," Gothel assured him, "As far as I can tell, the only magic they have is Rapunzel's hair. I'd be surprised if they even find out about this place, let alone have the means to do so."

"It would sure seem so on the surface, but I sensed something about Merida. She has something in common with you. I can't quite put a finger on it, but I know the connection is there."

"In common with me? Ha! Anyone can see that she's still alive after centuries of being presumed dead. I don't think there's any more than that."

"You both share longevity, but there is more than that. Perhaps I should gather reinforcements, just in case."

"Do we have time for that? You already went through all that trouble to cross the water the first time around."

"I did it to help my minions get a good look at the area. I'll use my telepathic link with them to tell them to keep an eye out for two human girls that are quite a bit more than human. That shouldn't be a problem."

"Very well. I do need one more thing though."

Ducard paused to think about it. "Oh, the heart of a true believer. There isn't a whole legion of them in this world, but we believe we've identified an excellent candidate: a boy living in a village further down on the peninsula. Why don't you take a small group with you there?"

Gothel obliged and teleported away in a cloud of smoke with three others.

* * *

"Our little primal behavior spell is ready. How much time do we have?" Merida asked.

The witch that had turned her mom into a bear promptly pulled out her crystal ball to reveal Gothel's activities.

"Looks like they're preparing things at the volcano as we speak. Gothel left to get one last thing for the ritual," Maisie replied.

"They're sure getting ready to do it," Rapunzel remarked, "Lots and lots of undead guys there. I'd say we got an hour at most before things start getting serious."

Merida sharply inhaled. "That town, if we don't stop them-"

"Would become ground zero for possibly the end of the world," Rapunzel nervously finished her. "We need to get there. Fast."

"Great. Those dragons won't get you there in time," Maisie said, "Plus we'd look conspicuous if I teleported you right into the town."

"Just do it!" Merida demanded, "They're about to witness weird and terrible things anyway."

"Fine."

Maisie made sure her hands made contact with both Rapunzel and Merida before making all three of them dissolve into the same series of orbs that brought her into the castle to begin with, concentrating on the city to teleport them right into it.

* * *

The three of them would start out in the middle of an empty alley in the City of Cambini.

"Hear anything, Punz?" Merida asked.

"Not a whole lot. Just some people snoring. But I'm detecting some non-humans," Rapunzel answered.

"Gothel's minions. They're patrolling the area."

"Oh great. We still have to tell all the civilians an earthquake's gonna happen."

"Think you can get to a rooftop for a look around?"

"I'll see…"

Maisie witnessed Rapunzel firing her hair towards the top of the alley wall to slowly and steadily bring herself up. She nearly exclaimed in shock before Merida quickly placed her hand on Maisie's lips to shut her up.

"Relax," Merida told her, "It's a long story."

"Oh, I'm sure it is," Maisie answered as Merida released her, "Keep forgetting that I've seen quite a lot of things go down in my lifetime."

"I think it's okay," Rapunzel said as she reached the roof.

The former Lost Princess kept her head low as she looked over the entire city and the offshore volcano. It wouldn't be long before she climbed back down.

"I could see a lot of lights coming from the island," she told the other two, "I'm surprised the guards around here haven't noticed."

"Or they might have been killed. We still have to warn someone," Merida reminded them.

"Who do you think's gonna believe us?"

"Likely not an average citizen here, but a person of power would certainly know what's going on. We should go for the castle. Stay alert."

Merida led the way as they tip-toed onward before stopping them as they reached a main street.

"Punz?"

"We got trouble. I can smell some vamps patrolling the area. We can either make a break for it and let the entire town know they're in trouble or find another way."

"Well, I said we should expect to be expected, so why not?" Merida assuredly pulled a wooden arrow from her quiver and halfway pulled it back on her bow. "Maisie, I need you to stay behind. Think you can keep track of us with your crystal ball?"

"I sure can," she answered. She promptly summoned it to her hands, making it arrive in a miniature cloud of smoke.

"Alright then. Punz, ready on three. Three…two…one. Now."

The two young ladies confidently charged out onto the main street, ready to take down anyone trying to stop them. Ducard's minions, though told to keep an eye out for them, were completely shocked by their appearance, hesitant to attack them straight on. By the time one of got brave enough to do it, Merida and Rapunzel had already crossed half the distance they needed to go.

Having felt it coming, Rapunzel sharply turned around and summoned her hair, firing it straight out to grab him. She quickly pulled him towards her for a good knockout punch to the face. "We got one," she uttered.

His actions prompted more to attack and attempt to surround them, even though he obviously failed and a very clear "No, you idiots!" could be heard.

"We've got the expected company, all right," Merida remarked, "Think you can give me a hand?"

"Sure."

She directed her hair to grab multiple incoming numbers at a time. Once grappled Rapunzel threw each of them many dozens of feet into the air, allowing Merida to take aim and quickly snipe them one practically a second after another with lethal accuracy.

"Come on let's keep moving!" Merida shouted.

Immediately after they finished off the first wave they charged onward. In less than a quarter of a minute they got close enough for the castle guards to notice the noise.

"Hey, what's going…oh my."

One of the guards noticed the commotion heading straight for him, but couldn't keep track of the action as Rapunzel quickly reacted to an attack from behind once again, this time from multiple numbers. She decided to throw them even further into the air than she did before and charged up a solar blast. The guards gasped in awe as they saw a bright flash of light take them all out in one shot.

Giving them no time to digest what they saw, Merida got the guards' attention.

"Hey, listen. I need you to evacuate everyone in this city. Get your men to direct them as far away from the city walls as possible and keep them out of harm's way. You're under attack."

"By what-"

Cutting the guard off, one of Ducard's minions attempted to bum rush him as Rapunzel was busy, moving towards him at a speed that seemed nearly impossible to deal with. But Merida reacted in time, and properly, sidestepping and sweeping the legs in one swift motion. She then turned around to pull four arrows from her quiver without hesitation. Taking half a second to make sure she had a lock, she released them, hitting all of intended targets with pinpoint accuracy. The guard witnessed each of the arrows reduce the undead speedsters to piles of ash.

"We need to evacuate everyone in the city," the guard told his colleagues in response, "Keep them away from harm and get them as far away from the walls as possible."

"Yes sir!"

As the local officials sprang into action Rapunzel went on the offensive, picking off every vamp she could perceive and tossing them off the ground with her hair before they could reach any civilians. Her tactics allowed Merida to practically have a field day, shooting down and dusting them left and right while they were helpless in the air, unable to use their immense speeds. The vamps fell back onto a hesitant mindset as they were completely stumped by what was happening to them. The sea of Rapunzel's blonde hair was simply unavoidable, and the way she moved it made it futile to try and even approach her. They had no choice.

As the guards began to escort civilians out the vampires retreated, seemingly giving way to a much tougher enemy.

"Flying monkeys?!" Rapunzel exclaimed, "Seriously? Where'd Gothel get those guys from?"

"I'd rather not find out," Merida answered.

The appearance of the winged baboons was intimidating, highlighted by their sharp teeth, their sharp claws, and reflective red eyes. They meant business, moving through the air with a vengeance at astonishing speeds. Merida knew her tactics had to be changed.

"I'm going to need a roof again," Merida told Rapunzel.

"Sure thing."

The hair-slinging brunette-blonde promptly and casually leaped to a forty foot tall rooftop in one bound. She then let down her hair. Merida checked to make sure she had both feet on the shingles after she climbed up before taking a few seconds to decide her next course of action.

"Split up. We'll cover more ground against these guys. Get to the docks," Merida ordered.

"You sure? Cause I'm pretty sure we were doing just fine sticking together," Rapunzel reminded her.

"This is different. Trust me."

Rapunzel obeyed and jumped back down for the street before heading for the docks, leaving Merida alone with a vantage point. Despite the limited number of conventional arrows, she felt confident in gaining the high ground. She knew what she had to do.

The first flying monkey she spotted veered down low from her left, intending to pick off and kidnap a random person. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and again took aim, only taking the milliseconds equal to that of a normal human's reaction time before she released her fingers with clarity. Immediately after she saw the beast fall to the ground, she heard another coming from her right. She shot him down before he even had a chance to reach a height below that of the roofs. The third one she could feel coming from her far left. She shot him square in the forehead while still looking in the opposite direction.

At that point, it was enough to get their attention. They quickly converged on Merida, deciding to focus on her and her alone. She didn't mind that she would start running out of arrows. It was exactly what she wanted.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rapunzel had made her way to the docks to take down a couple in that area. The first flying monkey that caught her eyes was one snatching a guard. She summoned her hair right away and slung it at him to initiate a three way grapple.

"Not today!" she shouted.

She brought the flying monkey down towards her and hit him with a close up solar shot, burning his facial flesh straight off his skull and causing him to drop the guard a few feet to the ground.

"_There you are, young lady._"

Rapunzel turned around to see Ducard standing right there on the pier about eighty feet away from her.

"You don't seem too surprised to see me here," were Rapunzel's opening words.

"Actually, I am somewhat," he replied.

He immediately charged at her full speed, leaving a trail of afterimages behind him. She had no choice but to blitz him as well, moving too fast to be seen by anyone else. It was quick enough to meet him close to half way. She started things off with an uppercut to his gut while she was still running. He swiped his left hand down to block it effortlessly. She went for a kick to his legs, hoping to break a bone. It indeed crippled him momentarily, but it wasn't enough to stop him from taking a hold of her arm when she tried to punch him in the face. He used the opportunity to backhand her in the cheek, sending her a good fifty feet away.

"_I would really appreciate a little mental devolution right now_," Rapunzel thought.

She quickly got up unharmed as she heard Ducard's kneecap rapidly healing. Still wanting to catch him off guard, she tried to end it quickly with a solar blast. He seemingly dodged it before the beam of light even flashed by, even though he was still technically injured. He would quickly heal from the subsequent burns soon after, in time to trip her when she charged at him again. Grabbing her short brown hair, he tried to take advantage and bash her head against a nearby pole. But he would soon learn it was a bad move. Her hair quickly turned blonde and rapidly grew to grab him back, throwing him to the ground as she back flipped over him.

He rose again, but this time to meet a flurry of punches from Rapunzel. He could barely keep up and block them. Yet, he still persevered, eventually finding a way grapple Rapunzel and throw her to the ground yet again.

Suddenly, the old lady once known as Boo turned up in the nick of time and magically flung Ducard back to the ground. She then hit Rapunzel with a primal instinct jinx while he was down, just as planned. Now she could really get it going.

Eyeing Ducard getting up, she super sped at him once more and threw out every move she could without any logic or reason. Ducard didn't have a chance to keep up with seemingly random punches and kicks that could land anywhere on his body. His shins, his knees, his solar plexus, his face, practically none of it were safe. Rapunzel's mind was filled with nothing but raw rage. He couldn't read anything from it. It wouldn't take long before she could get enough hits to get him down for a finisher opportunity. But the spell had taken its toll.

Rapunzel suddenly felt weak, as if her energy had all sapped in that moment. The last thing she saw before passing out was Merida arriving to put wood in his heart.


	13. Surprise Hostage

"Punz! Wake up!"

"Wha…what happened?"

Merida helped Rapunzel up.

"Easy there. We did it. He's gone for good now. I put an arrow in his heart. A _wooden_ arrow."

Rapunzel could see the pile of ash that was once Ducard laying there about two dozen feet away from her. She took a moment for a few breaths. She couldn't remember anything after she was hit with the spell. It really did wear her down, but she didn't care. She was just glad Ducard went down for good.

"I don't even remember you doing it. How long was I out?" she asked.

"Not long…relatively."

"Well we have one last thing to do-"

Rapunzel couldn't finish as the ground suddenly began to shake. Within seconds it turned into a full blown earthquake, just as it was stated in the lore.

"You go and stop Gothel!" Merida ordered, "I'll stay back and help the rest get out of here!"

"You sure-whoa!"

Both of them quickly jumped away to dodge the first bits of falling debris.

"You can do it! I believe in you!"

Merida ran back inland as Rapunzel and Maisie set their attention towards the sea. It was violent, more violent than it should have been even with an earthquake of such magnitude. It was bubbling too, as if someone lit a fire beneath the sea floor.

"I suppose I need a lift again," Rapunzel said.

In a snap the cottage witch grabbed Rapunzel by the shoulder and teleported them to the base of the island volcano.

"Getting up there shouldn't be a problem for you," Maisie remarked, "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to get up there yourself. I'm not really a match for her and I don't want her seeing me."

The volcano wasn't particularly tall, just tall enough to be prominently seen from the city. Rather, its caldera was very wide. It also was mysteriously not affected by the earthquake, and seismic activity was completely nonexistent. Rapunzel summoned her hair and directed it up, catching it between a few rocks. Holding on with both hands, she jumped away from the base, psionically controlling her hair to catapult herself up very quickly. She made sure she was going back towards the volcanic mountainside feet first before jumping off to repeat the move again. It would only take her nine rounds before reaching the top.

The vent was open and molten rock was pouring like a river. She noticed a red, viscous liquid boiling beneath it. However, the summit was much larger than she initially thought, large enough to offer plenty of space to move about in spite of the lava flows. She saw Gothel standing there about to drop a human heart down into the volcano. She immediately yanked it from her hands from afar with her hair.

"Okay party's over!" Rapunzel yelled.

She fired her hair at Gothel, only to see her disappear in a cloud of smoke.

"Uh-oh"

Rapunzel looked around everywhere to see where she could have went. Nothing.

"_You didn't think it would be that easy? Did you?_"

She could hear Gothel's voice echo in all directions. Knowing her kidnapper was using illusory tricks again, she opened up her senses in an attempt to hear or sniff Gothel out. Still nothing.

_"__She has to be here somewhere_," she thought.

"_Of course I am_," Gothel answered.

Rapunzel's hands began to shake in anxiety as she walked every inch of the summit looking for her. No thought was safe, as Gothel had clearly broken into her mind. Despite her superhumanly amped senses, she couldn't detect Gothel either. Did her former caretaker figure it out? Did she know all along?

She wiped her sweaty palms on her borrowed military pants before she approached the pulled heart for a good look. She wanted to destroy it, stopping Gothel right then and there in her plans to achieve absolute immortality and possibly wreaking havoc on the planet. But a closer observation revealed that it was still beating. To her, it defied all logic. How could a heart separated from a human body still be beating? It certainly was a kind of magic she hadn't seen before. She cautiously inched her hand forward to get a closer observation.

_"__Give me the heart. Now!" _

Rapunzel turned around to see Gothel having just reappeared on the other side where she once stood.

"Or what?"

Gothel waved her hand to reveal Eugene being restrained by the neck by some magical aura, held in the air. She then conjured a dagger.

"Oh my god! Eugene!" Rapunzel exclaimed.

"I give you once simple choice, dear. Give me the heart, or watch him die," Gothel warned.

"Oh yeah, right. Sure."

Despite her outwardly cocky attitude, Rapunzel's heart sank down to the other end of the universe. She was shocked out of her mind. She watched the ward being put up over Corona herself. She was sure nothing could happen while she was gone. Yet there he was, right in front of her, being held against his will. The only logical conclusion she could come to in that heated moment was that it was planned all along.

"Don't give it to her, Rapunzel," Eugene implored.

"Quiet!"

"You know I can just heal him, right? You of all people should know what my hair does," Rapunzel reminded her.

"Ah, yes. You see, what I have here doesn't just kill him, but also permanently separates his soul from his body. I've got things covered. In fact, I've got everything covered. Did you think I was going to let that fool Ducard get what he wanted? I only needed a hand from him. Both literally and figuratively, mind you. I cut off his hand and let him heal it back. I sent him after you as a distraction. I didn't care if anything happened to him, and judging by your presence right now, I presume you managed to kill him. I let him think I was arrogant, that I wasn't expecting you here at all. But you should know by now the great efforts I have gone through to attain my eternal life. I already knew you would seek help, and I simply wanted to beat it. I know you have quite some power there, whatever it is, but what makes you think-"

Rapunzel had it. She didn't want to hear Gothel gloat any further. She fully accepted that she was way too fast for Gothel to even hope to react to and went for it. Without warning Eugene saw her practically disappear from her previous spot in a blur and knock out Gothel in an instant, releasing him and causing him to collapse to his knees.

"Eugene! Are you okay?"

She helped him up a bit, not taking full notice of the shocked look on his face.

"I…I think…how'd you do that?"

"I guess I'm that fast. Never really pushed the limits before-"

Suddenly, Rapunzel was hoisted into the air telekinetically by the throat. Eugene looked to see if Gothel wasn't really knocked out, but couldn't see her anywhere.

"Rapunzel! What's going on?!"

She couldn't say anything. Eugene could only hear choking noises coming out her until she was flung all the way to the other end of the summit.

"Urahhh!"

She hit the ground with a reassuring thud. She got right back up quickly, knowing that Gothel knew she wouldn't go down easily. Indeed, Gothel reappeared and hurled Rapunzel into the air and hard back to the ground once more, this time with more force.

"Noooo!"

Eugene charged Gothel trying to stop her, but quickly found himself running into a magical barrier before being telekinetically seized as well.

"I thought about that one too," Gothel taunted.

Seeing Eugene restrained, Rapunzel felt as if all hope was lost. There was no way Gothel could hurt her with repeated telekinetic slamming, yet she couldn't help but feel helpless. For all intents and purposes, Gothel was going to win. At any moment she could just fling Rapunzel off the summit and toss the heart in, unleashing the Reality Stone on their world. At that point she was just toying with her. She was already contemplating her final thoughts. All of her efforts, the research, the fighting, was about to go down in vain. All that strength, durability, speed, agility, and reflexes, all of the hair-slinging and solar power, didn't matter anymore. All of it, was about to go for nothing. The power and responsibility, down the drain.

"Look at you, Rapunzel. Just you and that thief, up here and alone, both fools for even trying to stop me."

"_She's not alone!_"

Gothel turned around to see Merida standing right behind her for a short moment before receiving an arrow aimed right at her heart. It stopped short, but it was enough to disable Gothel's personal ward, whatever it was, and enough to allow Rapunzel to get back into the fight.

It was a huge moment of relief for her. Despite not fully understanding what has happening, she could feel the momentum swing in her favor. She knew she had the opportunity in that one intense moment, and took it.

She summoned her long blonde hair, taking hold of Gothel by her arms and waist. She slammed her kidnapper into the ground a few times before tossing her far up into the air. Now she could finish it. Back to her short brunette hair, Rapunzel leaped several stories after her and charged up a solar blast so intense that it briefly lit up the sky with localized daylight.

"Rahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

The massive attack used up nearly all her energy, sending her back to the ground flat on her back nearly drained. But it seemed to have worked. Gothel was nowhere to be seen after the sky went back dark. Merida and Maisie promptly rushed towards Rapunzel to see if she was okay.

"Is it over?" Rapunzel weakly asked, "Is she gone?"

Maisie checked the crystal ball one last time. "It is. The earthquake's stopped. The volcano's calmed down. The magic can only work if the caster is alive, or at least in this plane of existence. And well, she isn't."

"We did it."


	14. Epilogue

"No, no, no, Eugene, stop it."

"Say it, Punz, say it."

"Oh you're so dramatic."

"You just saved the world!"

"I know! I know!"

After many days away from the kingdom, Rapunzel spent her first comfortable night in her room with Eugene in a long while. She excitedly flipped the sheets off her to get out of bed…with enough force to completely separate them from the mattress.

"Geez luweez, watch the strength!"

She sure was relieved to be back in her room after almost a week away from the kingdom, so much that she couldn't contain herself. She couldn't believe how long she was gone and all the things she went through.

"Okay, okay, calming down," Rapunzel assured him, "But still, it was quite the experience to say the least."

The two were interrupted with a door knock.

"Who is it?"

"It's Wilshire. I have some news…_your majesty_. We received a message from the city-state of Cambini. They want to present both you and Princess Merida medals of honor."

Rapunzel opened her door.

"Medals of honor?"

"You were both quite the heroes. If there's anything I could say right now, you showed quite the willingness to step outside your comfort zone for a princess. They felt it was only appropriate they pay their respects."

"Oh wow! That's great!"

"I know, right?! Now go to Merida's room and let her know."

Rapunzel darted out from her room into the castle hallway and went straight for the guest room Merida was in.

"Merida?"

"Wha…what?" she responded in a muffled voice.

"We got a message from Cambini. They want to honor both of us for our heroic deeds. I know that kind of thing means a lot to you."

"That's great, Punz, that really is, but if you don't mind, I'd like some more sleep. After everything we've been through, I'm…I'm kind of."

"Exhausted?"

"...Yeah."

"Okay…"

Rapunzel promptly made her way to the dining room for her breakfast. When she got there, she was surprised to see the cottage witch. Once a mysterious character in Merida's life, she truly proved herself as an unsung hero.

"Maisie? Didn't expect to see you here."

"I just wanted to check and see if you were all doing alright," she responded.

"Oh, thanks. By the way, how did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"I'm pretty sure Merida couldn't have made it up to the top of the volcano _that_ quickly. You brought her up, right?"

"Yep, that's right."

"Then, what was that arrow all about. Like, it did _something_, didn't it?"

"Oh that. While you were up there I had enough time to get back to my cottage and conjure up an anti-magic arrow just for Merida."

"I figured, but why? Like why did you think we needed it?"

"Well uhh…you may not like what I'm about to tell you, but I kind of figured Gothel knew more about both you than you would have liked. I had to keep you in the dark about that because she was kind of spying on you the whole time."

Rapunzel's mouth dropped.

"Really? Come on."

"Well I do know her really well, and that's something she would do if she caught the attention of anyone getting in the way of her endeavors. She really was that crazy. So I spied back and made sure you didn't know or else she would have known she'd been caught doing it."

Rapunzel let out a breath. "Wow."

She spent a good amount of time letting that sink as she ate slowly before Merida interrupted.

"Good morning...or should I say, afternoon?" she greeted them.

"It's still morning," Rapunzel replied, "Barely."

"Well, I guess that doesn't count as oversleeping."

Merida hastily got her food and sat across from the former Lost Princess.

"I can't thank you enough for saving my butt out there," Rapunzel remarked.

Merida sighed. "Look, Punz, I know how you feel. I know you felt some way about Gothel, but you can't let personal revenge prevent you from doing the right thing. Your power, and the responsibility that comes with it is a big deal. But you need to learn to accept that you can't always go at it alone. I'm here for you. We're all here for you."

"Me too," Maisie added.

* * *

After a few moments, Gothel regained consciousness and woke up in experiencing things very differently. She knew it. She was dead. Rapunzel used all her energy to destroy her. Though it wasn't necessary to breath anymore, Gothel took a big one without hesitation, realizing what she would have to face down in the astral plane.

She floated herself off the volcano, back across the water and into the city. She would meet a very familiar face right after she landed onshore.

"Mistress Death. How are things going? Long time no see."

The hooded, feminine-looking skeletal figure had no words. Instead she displayed an expression of contempt before giving Gothel a big slap across the face.


End file.
